The Silent Invasion
by Miss-Inquisitive-Sci-fi
Summary: The return of an old friend, who now runs Section 31, diverts Captain Pike's evening. Against his will Chris has to contend with crazy stories of space worms infecting hosts, a suspicious agent, a silent invasion of Starfleet and to top it all off a trip down memory lane courtesy of a mind scanning prototype. It was going to be one hell of a night. Post Discovery Season 2. Pike/Una
1. Chapter 1

**A/N - This is definitely the biggest star trek tale I've written to date, and it's all based around the Enterprise crew and Pike shock/horror! Timeline is post-discovery season 2. Enjoy :)**

* * *

Captain Pike leaned back into the Captain's chair, his eyes flicking curiously around the bridge of the Enterprise. To his left, Nicola and Yeoman Colt were busy sharing department updates. Number One was perched on her usual seat over at the helm, her attention flicking between the viewport and her panels. Chris let his gaze linger on his XO for a little longer; he adored watching her in action, he adored the relaxed smile that made her face shine, the way she threw her head back and beamed when someone joked, the way her expression lit up when something caught her interest.

The Captain reluctantly moved his sweep onward when really he could have watched Una all day long, but that would be far too indiscrete and the crew would eventually notice. In a tight-knit group like this it only took one look for rumours to start, one look for the dynamic to change and that was something the pair of them would rather avoid. It was Una's decision to keep their friendship and what it had turned into private and Chris understood the need for secrecy, although he doubted that they were very good at keeping things hidden based on the rumours he had heard about their relationship...

Chris shook the distracting thoughts away and continued his surveillance sweep. Lieutenant Amin sat in the right helm seat, her and Una were chatting casually whilst they performed course headings for the future seamlessly. The atmosphere was nice, relaxed and a stark contrast to what it could fall into in the middle of a red alert; this was refreshing and happy, a welcome change. The bridge crew remained unaware of his watchful gaze which was exactly how he liked it. Here he saw all of them at their best, performing seamlessly together after being battle-hardened during the war against control.

Pike shook off the memory. He was having a pleasant moment; a good uneventful shift cataloguing a new moon, so the last thing he needed was to get lost in the horrors of the past. Especially when discussing the majority of the incident and the Discovery was not only painful but also treason. Even though it had been a year since the event he still thought about the crew, about Michael, Saru and all his other friends he had to say goodbye too. It still hurt.

He glanced at Spock over at the science station and felt a pang of sorrow as he watched him work. He knew Spock had wanted to go with his sister and had struggled in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. As with all problems though, time and a busy schedule helped. Spock had never quite been the same since the red angel assignment, he had changed but that wasn't a bad thing. He was more sure-footed than ever now; more sure of who he was and that confidence showed in his work. Pike was going to be recommending him for a promotion the next time reviews came round, the way he'd handled everything after having so much pressure on his shoulders was downright commendable. He hadn't just coped; he'd excelled.

Speaking of which Spock was working double-time over at his station, completely fascinated by whatever they were getting off the moon. He was busy instructing the science department like a conductor would. Pike's lips quirked upwards warmly at the image.

The Captain turned his attention back to the report in hand and fired off a few more communications to command. Strangely things had been quiet recently so they had all had a bit of a breather, not that it was unwelcome. In fact he might try and use the reprieve to organise some shore leave…

"Captain." Spock called out, interrupting that particular train of thought.

Chris glanced up. "Yes, Lieutenant."

Spock was standing at his science station, surrounded by underlings. "We have a preliminary report for you Sir."

Pike nodded and got up from his chair; he placed the data pad into it and started towards the scientists. Spock looked like he was resisting the urge to jump from side to side, he was more animated than usual and clearly something in the results had excited him. Not that it took much, it usually just had to be complex which meant Pike didn't have much of a hope of understanding it. Maybe one day he would be able to get his head round half of the kid's theories.

"Show me what you got."

The rest of the shift carried on as normal and at lunch time there was a change-over in some of the bridge crew. Pike watched with a pang of jealousy as Una made her way towards him knowing full well that she was about to clock off; he wished he could go with her. She headed over to the Comms station which he was currently observing, a report in her hand. He wasn't expecting a report from her so looked a little puzzled, he soon clocked that it was just an excuse to come and say goodbye which was… _bold_ for her.

She sidled up close to him and slipped the report into his paralysed hands, catching his gaze in the process. "See you later." She whispered, a seductive smile pulling at her lips. Pike's eyes grew as wide as saucers and he fought off the flush that was trying to creep up his neck. It wasn't like Una to flirt so openly and on the bridge no less. She was getting more daring and if he weren't so excited by the boldness he would be annoyed that she was risking a display. Una often left him speechless but this was ridiculous, even for her.

Una smirked at his reaction and then made her way off of the bridge, waving over her shoulder before the turbo-lift doors closed. Pike shook his head in disbelief -_ very daring indeed_. He glanced around the bridge and was happy to see that no-one appeared to be any the wiser on what had just occurred between their command team, well either that or they all had excellent poker faces.

Pike stared forlornly at the lift doors. He and Una had a date night planned for later: a weekly occurrence that had somehow become permanent somewhere along the way. Chris had been looking forward to it all day and after that look he had just got from her he couldn't wait to clock off.

Knowing it was a few hours yet Pike buried the thoughts and returned his attention to the bridge, complimenting Nicola on his work before heading back to the chair. Yeoman Colt ambushed him on his way back, smiling brightly and asking about a one to one meeting that evening; she had some things to discuss about new Starfleet Protocols.

_Date night with Una or protocols…_

"Is it urgent?" He asked seriously, there was usually no need to go over that sort of thing out of hours.

Colt frowned which was rather uncharacteristic of her, in fact all week she had been acting oddly…

"No Sir, not urgent."

Pike nodded and smiled apologetically. "Sorry Yeoman, it's just I'm all booked up tonight."

Her disappointment was palatable, surely she couldn't find protocols that interesting?

Sensing the importance he tried to compromise. "What about tomorrow?"

For a second it almost looked like she didn't like his answer, that it wasn't good enough and that this meeting couldn't wait. The strange look only lasted for a second though and then quick-as-a-flash it was all quickly masked and she plastered on a smile. "I'll see you then Captain."

She headed back towards her station and carried on as normal. Pike shook the oddness of it all off as soon as Nicola informed him of incoming ships and the entire bridge crew went on alert. He was only supposed to be on shift for a few more hours, that was until all hell broke loose with a distress call. The distressed ship had a warp core that was breaking down; their core was leaking and the crew hadn't been able to eject it. The Enterprise had only just reached transporter range in time to lock onto the survivors before the whole thing went up in a ball of flames.

The mess came afterwards. The survivors were not happy that they had been taken forcibly off of their ship, which the crew of the Enterprise didn't understand after showing them that their ship was now just a burning pile of wreckage floating out in space. What was worse was that the passengers aboard the cargo ship stemmed from all parts of the quadrant and were refugees. Diplomatically it was a bit of a nightmare and required a lot of processing and coordination with Command.

The situation was well in hand now though, they had dropped the entire compliment off at a nearby starbase. Thankfully they had only been 2 hours away from civilisation and Chris had pushed the warp core to get there sooner. The faster he got the volatile and ungrateful crew off of his ship the better; he did not want violence breaking out nor the responsibility of telling them that most of their claims would most likely be rejected. The Enterprise zoomed away from the starbase quickly, and the entire crew breathed a sigh of relief that the headache was out of their hands and being dealt with by people who were far better suited to the problem at hand.

Chris sighed tiredly and double checked that everything was running smoothly again, and that every job was being seen too. He was exhausted, hungry and really needed to get off the bridge. He had been there for 18 hours straight. He handed the conn over to Spock and headed back to his quarters; his main priority was to grab a shower, some food and finally some sleep. It had been a _long_ day.

* * *

The Captain walked wearily along the Enterprise corridors, and finally dragged his tired feet over the threshold of his quarters. The first thing he noticed when he entered was that the room was completely pitch black, which was in itself bizarre; the lights were usually programmed to turn on when he opened the door and stepped in.

He frowned up at the ceiling. "Computer lights."

After a hum the lights turned on as normal. Chris remained on-edge as he glanced around the living space suspiciously. After seeing nothing out of place he chalked the odd feeling down to exhaustion, his mind must be playing tricks on him. It wouldn't be the first time he'd overreacted, especially when dealing with the after effects of adrenaline, paranoia and anxiety took a while to dim even after all these years of dealing with stress.

Chris groaned and ran his hands over his face wearily, he needed something to take the edge off. With that immediate goal decided, he headed over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a stiff drink. He had just taken the first sip when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he felt a chill in the air. Paranoia was one thing but his instincts were rarely wrong, something wasn't right.

Pike spun round abruptly; he had to fight the urge to retreat in shock when he saw someone standing on the opposite side of the room, having just emerged from the shadows. The Captain was in for an even bigger shock when he recognised the scraggly beard, the black leather uniform and the black and silver badge.

"Tyler?" He muttered tentatively, even he didn't believe what his own eyes were telling him.

The longer he stared the more he felt his grip on his drink loosening. Seeing Tyler standing there had almost caused him to drop the glass for a second time that evening. He replaced the tumbler before another out of the blue moment hit him; that alcohol had cost an arm and a leg and he didn't want it soaking into his carpet.

Pike blinked a few times and fought against the urge to rub his eyes. Either he was so tired that he was dreaming this bizarre encounter or Ash Tyler, head of section 31 was standing in his quarters unannounced. On reflection he honestly didn't know which was more likely.

Tyler stepped forward into the light and managed a strained smile. "Hello Captain."

Chris hadn't seen Tyler in little over a year, since everything with Discovery, but it looked like the man had aged 10. His posture was more rigid, he held himself differently like he had finally got used to command, his beard and hair had flecks of grey sprouting, and the lines on his forehead had deepened. It was the eyes that really did it though, he looked tired. Perhaps that was what came with the territory of overseeing special ops. Pike certainly didn't envy him, he'd had his fair share of stress for one life time.

Now the who was answered, Chris quickly turned to why and also the how; like how the hell had Tyler gotten aboard the Enterprise let alone his quarters without alerting anybody? With so many questions, Pike decided to go forward with the most pressing. "What are you doing here?"

The question caused a strange reaction in Tyler, his face creased slightly and his step faltered. It was then that Pike realised that the agent actually had one of his hands behind his back, what was he hiding?

Up until now Chris had been controlling his body's urges to address the danger of an intruder in his room, it turned out he really had learned to trust Tyler and they had even formed a friendship of sorts. Once upon a time he would have reacted far differently, knowing that the man before him was a half Klingon hybrid who had killed Starfleet officers before. The suspicious behaviour; the sudden appearance in his room without permission, and the complete lack of answers were all stating to put Chris on edge.

Pike's tiredness drained away and was instantly replaced by adrenaline as his body reacted to the warnings. He rarely ignored his instincts and they were screaming to him that something was seriously wrong with this whole situation.

Tyler seemed to notice the change in atmosphere; he stopped walking forward and stood his ground a few metres away. He gulped heavily. "I'm sorry about this."

If the Captain hadn't been on alert before then he was now, Tyler was acting seriously weird and it was starting to freak him out. He didn't like the tone or direction this conversation was going in, why couldn't he have just come back to a normal night instead of this cloak and daggers bullshit?

"About what?" He fired backed suspiciously, whilst switching his stance to mirror Tyler's.

Tyler's answer was him bringing a phaser from behind his back, aiming it squarely at Pike's chest and pulling the trigger.

Chris let out a strangled cry when the blast hit him, he felt his legs buckle and soon he was tumbling to the ground as his whole body was forcibly put to sleep. He hit the ground with a thud in a crumpled mess, his brain still whirring at a million miles an hour trying to work out why the hell Tyler had just shot him, all the while his mind was galloping closer to giving into the encroaching darkness.

Before his vision faded completely he watched Tyler take several steps towards him, but he wouldn't meet his gaze and he was swallowing guiltily. Tyler stopped over the Captain and whispered. "If it's you in there, I'm so sorry."

Chris couldn't fight the effects of the stun any longer, he had one last final thought before he closed his eyes. _What the hell?_

* * *

Pike drifted awake, his body reacting badly to the conscious world; he moaned as a powerful nauseous feeling ripped right through him. His head thudded with a constant drum beat and his mind felt fuzzy and distant. The effects of a stun blast from a phaser were unpleasant to say the least and no matter how many times he had been through it, the after-effects always left him feeling drained and achy.

His eyes snapped open as he realised he had just diagnosed the consequences of a stun blast. He scrambled for a reason, or for anything frankly. The last memory he held flashed into his mind: Tyler in his room, the phaser in his hand and the shot...

A spike of white-hot pain seared a path across his temple causing him to wince. Opening his eyes that quickly had not been a good idea, and it had done no favours in drowning out the sound of the mini orchestra that was currently running riot in his mind.

Chris groaned which was when he realised there was something in his mouth that had just muffled his moan. Whatever the thing was it felt like cloth and an awful musty taste, it was dry and it had served to make his mouth dry as a consequence. He couldn't swallow properly to generate any saliva so his throat was like sand paper.

As more awareness returned Pike realised the thing in his mouth was a gag, and it was tied tightly round the back of his head.

_Son of a bitch, Tyler had gagged him? What the hell was going on..._

Speaking of inconveniences he instinctively went to reach up to remove the cloth which was when he felt a tugging pull against his wrists. Glancing down he saw he was sat in a chair, his wrists had been zip tied to the arms and after testing his legs he concluded his ankles had been given the same treatment. He tugged on the various restraints but none of them budged an inch. He even had what looked like ripped up bedding tied around his chest pinning him to the back of the chair. In short, he was going nowhere fast.

What was with all the overkill? He wasn't even armed and he had been out of it...

Pike snapped his head up and sought out the current bane of his life and the reason he was trussed up like a turkey at Christmas: Ash Tyler. It didn't take him long to zero in on the head of Section 31; he was sat hunched over Pike's desk, typing away at the terminal and squinting at the screen in the dim lighting. He seemed to be having trouble finding whatever he was looking for although Chris could see from here that Ash had managed to break through his login.

Chris frowned heavily and tried to keep his temper in check, what the hell was Tyler playing at? First he snuck onto a federation Starship, then he assaulted a starfleet Captain, tied him to a chair and now he was busy breaking into his computer? He wanted answers now and he wanted this damn gag off so he could give Tyler a piece of his mind, ideally he wanted his hands free too so he could ring the little bugger's neck.

Pike grunted into the gag until he got Tyler's attention. After a few seconds of increasing muffled shouts Tyler finally heard that his captive was awake and spun round on his seat, wide-eyed and for a moment a flash of fear flitted across his face.

_Good, he should be scared._

The initial reactive emotion was eradicated and after taking a deep breath Tyler got to his feet; he pointedly picked up the phaser from the desk and made his way over to Pike's bound position in the bedroom area.

Chris mumbled into the gag angrily, something along the lines of: 'Get me the hell out of this Tyler or I'll kick your ass into the brig myself.' Sadly all that came out was incoherent sounds. Tyler understood the general meaning anyway and held up his hand placatingly, holstering the phaser as he did so.

"I know you're angry. I would be too."

Pike's eyes blazed furiously; angry didn't cut it. Tyler noticed that the only thing he had accomplished was making the Captain madder. He sighed, pulled up a chair and tried to repair some of the bridges he had burned.

"I am sorry about this, trust me I wish it wasn't necessary." He indicated the ties and gag. Tyler sagged back into the chair and rubbed the back of his neck, looking rather like he had before he had shot him; like he had the weight of the whole universe was on his shoulders. "I will explain everything but for now hopefully this will be enough."

He straightened and his expression grew grave. "We believe your ship and crew are in danger, we know that several federation planets are at risk and Starfleet has been compromised."

Well, out of all the things for Tyler to say that was not what Chris had been expecting. The words stalled his minute attempts to loosen his bindings, not that he had been getting anywhere.

He liked to think he was a good judge of character and he knew Ash well enough to know when he was telling the truth. With that in mind he felt the majority of his anger evaporate, replaced by curiosity, concern and annoyance that Tyler had handled it this way. He still had a lot of explaining to do here.

Chris really needed this damn gag out of the way so he could begin to ask questions and work out what the hell Tyler meant by his ship being in danger. He indicated as well as he could with his eyes to the offending material and mumbled a few times.

Ash got the message. He held up a hand in understanding. "Yeah okay I get it you have questions." He sighed heavily and glanced round the room. "I'm sorry about putting that thing in your mouth but I couldn't have you calling out and instructing the computer to do anything, this is too important and the consequences too great."

Chris didn't miss the fact that Tyler's hand was brushing his holstered phaser. "No-one else can know I'm here or that I've been here. I'm not being melodramatic in saying that the lives of everyone in Federation space could be at risk."

If that really was true then Pike could forgive Tyler although there was something to be said about his methods of ensuring silence, didn't he trust him?

Tyler glanced from the phaser to the gag, his fingers fidgeted over the weapon uncertainly. He looked at Pike and made his position clear. "I've not gone mad, I'm not doing anything that Section 31 doesn't know about and I have the authority needed for this assignment. As much as I find threatening you unsavoury I have to."

He reached forward slowly and fingered the edge of the gag. "I'm going to take this off now. If you cry out or do anything stupid I'll have to stun your ass again…" He tilted his head and winced. "…or worse."

Pike could see that Tyler was having trouble with this whole threatening thing but he also saw the conviction there and that Ash would do what he thought he had to, the question was why did he think he had to? And what the hell did he mean by worse? Chris was pretty sure that based on that threat; he didn't want to know…

Ash searched Pike's face for reassurance. Chris opened himself up completely, wanting to show Tyler just how seriously he was taking this. Tyler bit the bullet and removed the gag, leaving it hanging loosely around Pike's neck. He stayed close by and kept the phaser within reach incase Pike did something stupid and he had to take action.

Chris eyed the weapon carefully and made sure not to blurt out all the questions on his tongue immediately, unsure if Tyler would describe that as an outburst. Instead he licked his lips and started with the most immediate question on his mind, making sure to keep his tone calm despite the inner panic that was rising by the minute.

"You said my ship was in danger, my crew?"

Tyler let out a relieved sigh when he realised he wasn't being yelled at and that Pike was doing as instructed. He leant back a little and eased up but kept the phaser pointed loosely at the Captain. "Yes, that's why I'm here."

Chris nodded after hearing the unspoken words, he connected the dots and made a guess as to why he had been treated like this from the get go. "From me?"

Tyler looked a little taken aback, perhaps by his guess but the expression was enough to tell Pike that he had been right on the money. Not that it helped make sense of this mess.

"I think so yeah, I wouldn't be doing this otherwise." Tyler sounded genuinely conflicted and Chris could see that he really didn't like this situation or what it was supposedly _forcing_ him to do. It didn't make it nice to be shot and tied to a chair but it did make it more understandable and forgivable.

Pike strove to accept the situation and make the most of his position. For now at least, he was very aware that Tyler was in charge here and held the answers to all his mysteries so he put the ball in his court. "So what do we do now?"


	2. Chapter 2

Tyler pondered the query, rolling his head from side to side as he deliberated. "How about this? You ask me all the questions you want, and I'll answer what I can. Then we move onto what I came to do, and I'll outline the threat."

_This threat that somehow involves me…_

Even though the threat against the whole federation sounded ridiculous and theatrical, Tyler kept acting like his description and handling of this situation was a rational one, which in itself was worrying. Ash wouldn't be taking such desperate measures if he wasn't convinced that there was a lot more at risk than just the two of them, Chris knew that much about him. That fact alone meant that Pike wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to find out just exactly what this was all about, but when did he have the luxury of shying away from life-ending problems?

Pike glanced over at his activated computer screen and indicated to it with a nod of his head. "What were you doing on my computer?"

Tyler glanced back over his shoulder, a faint crease appearing around his eyes and forehead. "Looking for something that should have been there."

Something about Tyler's tone of voice didn't sit right with Pike; Ash clearly hadn't expected to be presented with a roadblock so early on. This wasn't part of his plan and that was concerning for both of them, not just because he was stuck tied to a chair whilst the Section 31 agent had control over his life.

Chris kept these worries to himself and he pressed Ash for more information. "Looking for what?"

Tyler was snapped out of his musings and shot an apologetic look at Chris, indicating he wasn't going to divulge anymore at this point.

Chris swallowed down an angry rebuttal, shook the frustration off and fired off another pressing question, one which was going to ensure he re-designed the entire security system of the Enterprise if he made it out of this. "How did you get on board the Enterprise without anyone knowing? Without me knowing?"

Tyler scoffed and pointed towards his badge. "Head of Section 31 remember?"

The Captain threw him a withered glare. "And you wonder why you guys are so unpopular."

Tyler shrugged lightly, the smile soon slipped off his face and he responded seriously. "When this is all over, I'll tell you."

What Chris wanted to know was what _this_ was. His mind flew back to what Tyler had said earlier when he had been standing over him, and just after he had fired a phaser point-blank at his chest. "Before you shot me, you said 'If it's you in there.' What did you mean by that?"

Tyler grimaced and he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry, that's part of that larger story."

Chris audibly groaned and looked up at the ceiling, he took several deep breaths and clenched his jaw to stop his furious thoughts from spilling out. These half-truths were growing more than just frustrating, Ash said he'd explain this entire mess so why was dealing with Section 31 always like pulling teeth?

As he leant back in the chair his limbs protested the strain against the zip ties, that and the ridiculous amount of material that was strapped around his chest. He glanced at the restraining material with distaste and remembered his earlier thoughts about the setup being more than just a little bit excessive.

He glared at Ash and didn't bother to hide his annoyance as he flexed his fingers against the ties. "Is there any particular reason I'm restrained as heavily as this?"

"It's for your own safety." Tyler responded instantly.

Pike scoffed, shook his head and glared at Ash with a 'really' expression firmly in place. There was only so much you could take on faith and Tyler was on real thin ice here.

Ash noticed his reaction, he huffed apologetically and opened his mouth to shoot him down again, that was until Pike interrupted in a mocking tone. "You'll explain later, yeah I know."

Tyler averted his gaze and shrank back in the chair, looking thoroughly reprimanded and sheepish. So, what on earth could he ask? What would he get a straight answer for?

Pike suddenly remembered what Tyler had said about gaining approval for his assignment; he decided to put that to the test. "Does Starfleet Command know about this _assignment?_"

Ash rolled his eyes at the sarcastic note and he huffed a petulant "No." Which caused Chris to panic, and rightly so. Tyler shot forward in his chair when he saw Pike's eyes widen and mouth open to call out. "But it has been approved by a number of independent Admirals."

Chris' outcry died on his lips. Involving admirals independent from Section 31 was a good thing but Pike wasn't exactly thrilled that Command had been left out; that's what shot them in the foot with the whole mess with control.

When he regained use of his tongue, he tried again. "Why not command?"

Ash's expression said that he wanted to explain but he didn't know how. It was alright, Chris worked it out himself. "Because they've been compromised…" Chris deduced.

Tyler did a double take but he didn't deny Pike's revelation, in fact he actually managed a minute head nod. Chris waited for any further information and he wasn't entirely surprised when none came, that didn't mean he wasn't pissed off by that fact. Pike leant back in his chair, attempted to take several calming breaths, all the whilst trying to think up any more questions. The problem was that Tyler hadn't actually answered the ones he _had_ asked. He couldn't work with half a story forever.

"I am really trying to stay calm here Tyler and give you the benefit of the doubt, but I need a little more than what you're giving. You keep saying the ship is in danger, that Starfleet itself is at risk and you certainly have my attention so come on spill."

Tyler eyed him wearily, his eyebrows raised. "It's a long story."

Chris tilted his head, looking entirely unimpressed and not falling for the obvious attempt to fob him off. "Is the ship in immediate danger if I'm here with you?"

"No." Tyler drawled slowly.

"Then we've got time. This better be one hell of a story Tyler. Even though I'm staying calm now for the sake of the Enterprise and her crew I am not happy about this one bit, Section 31's methods have much to be desired and to be honest this is giving me flashbacks to Leyland."

Ash visibly stilled at the comment, his pallor turning ashen. Eventually he acknowledged the blow and took it aboard. "I'm not Leyland, Captain and this isn't control."

Pike wasn't convinced and that wasn't likely to change whilst he was tied up and held at phaser point. He'd been burned by Section 31 in the past and even though he had at one point trusted Tyler, it had been a long time since he'd seen him and his behaviour so far had been worrying to say the least.

"Prove it." He laid down the challenge.

Tyler scrutinised him silently for a few moments and then eventually nodded. "Yeah okay, you deserve that much. You're not going to believe me though."

Chris grinned despite the situation; there were many things Ash didn't know about Pike's life and missions. He could believe just about anything right now.

"Try me."

* * *

It all started 2 months ago with the tragic death of Captain Londa. His death wasn't malicious, nor was it foreseen, simply put it was a tragic accident whilst leading an away mission. Londa had been performing routine checks with a standard away team when he had tripped and fell over, his head hit a protruding rock hard and that was that. The away team tried everything they could to revive him and so did the medical staff back aboard his ship, but they couldn't bring him back.

The suddenness of his Captain's death made the chief medical officer suspicious. Whilst a blow to the head could be dangerous, he just didn't understand why the accident had caused a bleed on the brain; why it had been fatal when the Captain had only been in his 40's, was fit and healthy and had recently passed a physical with flying colours.

The CMO performed endless scans in an attempt to identify any reason why the bleed had occurred in the first place, or what had caused the injury to escalate so quickly. After finding absolutely nothing he sought permission to go one step forever and cut his former Captain open.

It wasn't a usual request but in these circumstances it was what was required, they needed to investigate suspicious deaths and in doing that they could hopefully learn from this tragedy. Command granted him permission so he performed an autopsy; what he found is where our story really beings to get interesting. Attached to the back of the Captain's neck, entwined around his spinal nerves and reaching up towards his brain was a worm.

Now, Doctor Keller was a scientist and he usually conjured up better descriptions than that but he was a Doctor, not a Xenologist. So when he wrote his frantic report and attached pictures of the phenomenon he used the words: "Long alien brain worm."

It was a good thing his report included pictures as well as scans of the thing once he had extracted it from the Captain's body; he wouldn't have believed his own words without evidence. He tried to examine the organism but it was clearly dead, it didn't match any federation records and there was no sign as to where it had come from. Even more worryingly, the space worm hadn't shown up in any previous scans of the Captain's body. Doctor Keller checked through every single scan that he had taken but he saw no sign of the worm, even though he knew it had been there.

For some reason the worm was completely invisible to their technology which begged the question, what had it been doing there, did it have hostile intent and was it the reason Captain Londa died so suddenly?

Emboldened by the questions Doctor Keller trawled through everything that had happened recently; he soon discovered that a few colleagues and the Captain's first officer had actually noticed a change in the Captain's behaviour a week ago, after their stop at a space station. Captain Londa had been acting strangely ever since, out of character even and had apparently been exhibiting worrying changes.

After carrying out an investigation Doctor Keller's only conclusion was that the alien worm must have been behind the Captain's recent change in behaviour, and after noticing a drop in antibodies in the Captain's blood he hypothesised that somehow the parasite had weakened the host. Which may just explain why exactly such a simple accident had caused his death.

Doctor Keller sent off his report to his CO who just happened to be seconded to Section 31. He took one look at the report and passed the whole thing over to a Section 31 specialist, flagging it as a potential problem. That Specialist reported directly to the head of Section 31: Ash Tyler, which was the first time he learned of the infiltration happening right under all their noses.

Tyler recognised that the incident could indicate an impending disaster. A Starfleet Captain had been infected by an alien parasite and no one had noticed, not until he had died and only then because a paranoid CMO wanted answers and decided on cutting him open.

The most worrying thing was that the worm didn't show up on any scans and it was invisible to all of their equipment, also no-one seemed to know how and when it had could have happened only that Captain Londa had started acting differently after their trip to a federation starbase. So there was every possibility that the worm had not only affected the Captain's personality but had actually acted far more like a parasite and taken control, that thought alone was deeply concerning especially given who the target had been.

Ash ordered a full investigation from the bat and he and his team began looking into the rest of the crew, to look for any suspicious behaviour or changes amongst the senior staff. Interviewing the whole crew whilst trying to make everything appear normal took a huge task-force and his best people; it was important to play the interviews off as random checks after the Captain's unusual death.

They found nothing. Absolutely no sign of any problems or anything to back up their theories and Section 31 agents were a suspicious bunch; if there had been something there to find they would have found it. So, with none of Captain Londa's crew infected the scope turned to elsewhere, the worm hadn't just appeared it had to have come from something.

Ash split up the teams into delving through Captain Londa's past away missions, looking for any signs or intel of this kind of thing appearing on the planets he and his ship had visited. He put the other teams onto the Starfleet space station, which were where all the clues were pointing to.

They had multiple lines of enquiry. The alien could have come from the space station itself, from another visitor or from even from another docked ship. As it turned out, that was exactly what had happened. One of the teams had discovered that Captain Londa's ship was docked at the same time as the USS Jameson and not only that, but Captain Londa and Captain Yavok had had an in person meeting that lasted for hours.

After digging into Yavok, they had discovered that he had himself been behaving strangely recently, there were comments in multiple people's personal logs about the odd behaviour: the unusual snappishness, and that he seemed out of character and impatient with people.

Tyler had hoped that the whole thing would just blow over; that they could forget about the alien worm and mark it down as some strange occurrence. Sadly life decided to throw him a curveball because it all turned out to be a hell of a lot more serious than that.

Ash sent a team out to talk to Yavok, not interrogate as such but to try and get a feel of whether they were dealing with some kind of hostile intent here. He was starting to get the nasty feeling that these bugs were taking over or at least influencing their hosts behaviour and actions, and if Captain Londa's bug had come from Captain Yavok… Then they were spreading through the higher ranks of Starfleet, which could not be a coincidence. It was what any silent invading force would do; target high-ranking people in places of power and then strike. Starfleet would never see it coming.

The team returned with more questions and another dead Starfleet Captain. Ash watched the tapes and sighed when he saw it all begin to go wrong. At first the Captain had been acting normally, annoyed that he was being questioned by Section 31 but that was nothing new. Ash would be worried if he had been enjoying the subpoena.

The questions were kept light at first, barely pushing into his change in behaviour and his secret meeting with Londa. At some point in the interrogation one of the team had let slip about what they found on Londa. That was when it all went to hell.

Yavok went out of his mind, he flipped the table and flew at his interrogators screaming at them in a mad rage. Tyler watched the chaos on his screen, his team were slow to respond to the sudden outburst and the crazed Captain almost made it to the door. At the last second one of the team pulled out his phaser and fired a blast directly at the Captain's back. Sadly the specialist hadn't had the time nor foresight to check that his weapon was set to stun, the only thing on his mind was that he couldn't let the Captain get out of the door and inform anyone else who was in on it. Still, the blast shouldn't have been lethal, it should have left a nasty phaser burn but that could have been treated.

When they rolled over Captain Yavok he was clearly dead, his lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling with a frozen scream etched into his face. The team had panicked, they beamed back to their own ship and phoned their superior. That was when Tyler received the garbled call from the startled Lieutenant, who went to explain that Yavok was dead and that they didn't know what to do. Ash travelled to the ship and oversaw the matter himself.

After one look at the body Tyler seconded Doctor Keller to the ship, knowing he had had experience with the alien worms in the past and that he had been sworn to secrecy. Keller performed every test under the sun, specifically looking for the worm this time but again found nothing. He used every piece of federation kit at his disposal but nothing, it was like it was invisible. Tyler would have bet money that there was nothing attached to Yavok's neck, especially after seeing all the scans first hand.

Doctor Keller performed an autopsy and low and behold he extracted a dead alien worm which had been wrapped around the Captain's spine, in the exact same place as Londa's. One could have been a one-off affair, two however turned this into an incident.

Keller tried his best to get as much information as he could from the worm, but he struggled to find much else about it other than the fact it seemed to meld with its host. From studying the two Captain's last moments they could all determine that the worms weakened their hosts. Londa shouldn't have died from his head wound and Yavok shouldn't have died from the phaser wound. It also affected their personality and not only that, it was clear that Yavok had not been himself at all at the end. His body and mind had been completely taken over by the parasite and they could only assume that Londa was the same.

The conclusions were deeply worrying.

Tyler took the decision to arrange an accident for Captain Yavok, knowing that for the moment at least, there could be any other number of infected people aboard the Captain's ship. His suspicions about hostile intent and invasion were growing bigger by the minute, the last thing they needed was to tip any other compromised people off about their discovery; that may just kick-start a war.

They made the Captain's death look like a shuttle craft accident, and soon moved onto creating a dedicated task force to hunt down compromised officers infected by space worms. Even by Section 31's standards this work seemed ridiculous and it was making them all paranoid.

Doctor Keller came aboard full time and worked with Section 31 to try to come up with a way to detect the alien worm _before_ the host died and they had to cut them open. Tyler needed to know who he could trust, for all they knew any number of people could have been infected and that was the exact reason he hadn't told Starfleet Command yet or any of his superiors, it simply wasn't safe with the worm's choice of high-ranking targets so far.

The teams searched through the records of Yavok's crew and began investigating where he could have become infected, they were becoming more certain that the worms were being passed around by the already infected hosts.

They had an entire room dedicated to flow charts of Yavok and Londa's lives, who they had come in contact with that fitted the criteria: High-ranking, exhibiting a recent change in behaviour and had been in contact with other Starfleet officers. It was a huge spiralling diagram of spaghetti, one person spread out to 5 who each in turn spread out to 5 more. It was like a pandemic diagram.

After reviewing more information they realised another connecting factor; both Captain's had been struggling with memories. It was only mentioned in the reports of people who had known them well. They mentioned that whilst their respective Captain's short term memory was fine it was when they had to recall things of the past; it was like they hit a blank. The Captain would look at them like they were mad and say that that had never happened.

Keller had a working theory that because the worm was connected directly to the brain, loss or suppression of memories might be a side effect of the connection, some memories may appear wrong or missing entirely. Hence only people who knew the hosts well would notice, for most people the hosts would appear normal and would have the same base memories: the important things like how to do their jobs, but less important things had to be sacrificed as the worm put pressure on the brain, things like old birthdays or childhoods.

That gave Tyler an idea. He showed Doctor Keller an experimental prototype Section 31 had been working on, it was based on Terran technology and was being prototyped to act as an interrogation tool for imposters. The reason for using it here seemed obvious, they essentially _were_ dealing with imposters. It was the same body but a corrupted mind; different memories and missing memories.

If anything was going to pick up an abnormality the probe was, and it wasn't painful for the host, Tyler had insisted on that when he had taken over and heard the Terran tech was being developed. He did not want this universe to turn into that one…

The probe worked by sifting through a persons memories, from their earliest to the present day. It specifically looked for any inconsistencies, any glitches or huge gaps in time. It used the data alongside information from the officer's files to match whether that person was truly who they said they were; in laymen's terms it was like a mental lie detector.

Tyler demonstrated the kit to Keller who began using it on everyone enthusiastically. So far the people they had tested amongst the task force were all showing up clean. They really needed to test it out in the field, on a person they suspected of being compromised. If this worked then they could finally start the fight back, they could begin to inform higher ups once they had been cleared and they wouldn't have to work alone and in the dark anymore. The task was beginning to become a mammoth one, they needed a bigger network and they needed to be able to trust each other.

Everyone was becoming far too paranoid and worried that other compromised hosts would hear about the deaths, that they would become suspicious and start whatever it was they were planning. Of course that was all assuming that Tyler's suspicions were confirmed and that a secret invasion was currently underway, it was straight out of warfare tactics and set off all his alarm bells…

They soon found a target to try their prototype out on, the yeoman that had been serving Captain Yavok. He had been acting differently recently and filled all the other criteria. Whilst he wasn't a high-ranking officer he had access to one, daily. It may have been who had infected Yavok in the first place…

Ash carried out the interrogation personally, alongside Doctor Keller and Tyler's second in command: Agent Jones. They managed to extract the Yeoman from his ship without anyone noticing and they placed him in a room aboard Section 31. At first the interrogation had been normal enough, the Yeoman was nervous but then who wouldn't be after being picked up by special ops?

When the mind-scanner prototype came out it started to get weird. Keller began to explain what the device was for, that it would search his memories and look for inconsistencies, that it was essentially a mental lie detector and specialised in rooting out imposters.

At first the Yeoman had gone quiet, then his face turned pale, ashen almost and finally he reacted. Out of nowhere he shoved Keller out of the way violently and went for Jones' gun before the man could react. Tyler fell backwards when the table was flipped and struggled to get to his feet in time to stop the sudden outburst, he hadn't been expecting it either and he shamefully realised that if they had just restrained the Yeoman then they all wouldn't be in danger right now.

Ash righted himself in time to see that the Yeoman were fighting over the gun, the yeoman had an animalistic snarl plastered to his face and he was hissing and spitting like a crazed person. He definitely wasn't a Starfleet officer anymore.

Tyler went to unholster his own weapon to stun the Yeoman and end this when suddenly Jones' phaser went off, directly into the Yeoman's eyes bulged unnaturally and he gasped aloud. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he crumpled to the floor to land in a boneless heap; a smoking hole scorching the front of his chest.

Jones just stood there, completely shocked and staggered by what had just happened. Tyler snapped out of the moment and raced over to the fallen Yeoman, reaching for a pulse and calling Doctor Keller over. He could tell by the Yeoman's too-still chest that they were already too late, and after 10 minutes of Keller trying to revive him they called it.

Morbidly they tried out their experiment on the Yeoman's body, determined to not let his death go completely to waste. As expected the detector indicated that there was memory corruption and inconsistencies, it gave a 90% reading that the Yeoman was an imposter. It was too late for him though.

Tyler wrote new procedures for the task force then and there. Never tell any subject about the lie detector until they were securely restrained, in fact don't start the interrogation at all until they were. Yes, they may complain about it but it was for everyone's safety in the long run. If they had restrained the Yeoman from the beginning then he wouldn't have been able to grab Jones' weapon when he heard about the memory scanner. He would still be alive.

Clearly the worms were aware of their own weaknesses, they only reacted like that when they knew for certain they had been discovered or were about to be. The need to escape became all encompassing, driven by self preservation or more likely the overriding need to let more of their kind know about the discovery.

Keller even believed he could extract the worm without killing the host, he had removed enough of them from dead people to see that it was always in the exact same space and it wasn't too embedded that it couldn't be extracted with his tools. They had to do better next time, they had to get it right so they could start getting people out of this nightmare alive. If they couldn't get this right… it would be the end of the federation as they knew it.


	3. Chapter 3

After the latest roadblock in the investigation Tyler wrote new regulations with input from Doctor Keller, and with them in place the next interrogation didn't end with needless loss of life. This time they didn't say a word until the suspect was restrained, no matter how loudly they protested the arrangement. Better a few bruises and hurt feelings than being dead.

When they produced the mind scanner the host went mad; he tugged against the restraints wildly and launched into a frenzy just like the others had only this time he had nowhere to go. Keller studied the results from the scanner and sure enough the results returned a 93% chance of the suspect being an imposter. That was good enough for Tyler and frankly the way the man had reacted to the news was already enough, he was fighting against them all like a caged animal.

They finally had a breakthrough. Using the device on a live suspect was a major step forward and it also confirmed the prototype worked, they could actually start to detect the infected people. They could start creating more of the prototypes and finally vet the Section 31 teams properly, not to mention some admirals so they could get some bloody support…

The next step was extraction. Keller administered a mild sedative to help calm the suspect and to stop him from cutting his wrists to shreds. Whilst the drugs started to take effect, Doctor Keller hooked up the host to a heart monitor and started to prepare his tools for the extraction procedure.

Tyler decided to use the interim to try and start a dialogue. This was the first time any of them had actually had a chance to talk to one of these hosts; well, talk for longer than 2 seconds before they had all died.

Ash decided to start with the basics. "Who are you?"

The host stopped thrashing and he glanced up at Tyler, almost a suspicious nature to his aura. "I'm Commander Turner."

"No you're not." Ash countered strongly, leaning forward into the man's personal space. "You're an alien worm attached to Commander Turner's brain."

He clocked the increased heart rate, and so did Keller who stopped his preparation to glance at the vitals.

The Commander's face began to morph into something else entirely; his confident evaporated, and something dangerous and unfamiliar flickered in his eyes. Even his voice sounded different; colder. "You know of us…"

"We don't know what species you are." Ash prompted, noticing the vitals hadn't stabilised, in fact they appeared to be getting worse and he noted that Keller was beginning to look worried.

Turner completely ignored Tyler's probing question and hissed back. "We were suspicious when we heard of Yavok's death, was he the one who gave us away?"

Keller was standing behind the Commander holding a scanner to the back of his head, the worry lines deepening with each second. The Doc glanced from the scanner to the vitals screen and barked out an urgent warning. "Tyler, we haven't got much time. It's killing him."

Ash perked up at the warning, he snapped his gaze back to Commander Turner in alarm and really looked at him this time. It was true that his skin looked clammy and his breathing was getting quicker, but how did this equate to the alien killing him? And why would it want to do such a thing, were they suicidal as well as murderous?

Tyler became aware of the rising frequency of the beeping coming from the heart monitor, he didn't have long before Keller would insist on halting the interrogation. He needed to get as much information out of the alien as possible, whilst Turner was still with them.

"What do you want?"

Turner barked out a chilling laugh and sneered. "We want your universe."

The proclamation sent a chill down Ash's spine, that and the cold-hearted conviction in which he had said it. The promise terrified him but he wasn't about to let Turner see that. "That's not going to happen." Tyler promised back with more bravado than he felt.

Doctor Keller made several desperate noises at once and picked up the equipment he needed to extract the worm; he clearly didn't like what he was seeing.

"Keller wait, I need more time." Ash desperately called out. Keller responded to the order although his thunderous expression showed how unhappy he was with the command.

"His system is beginning to shut down, this is too much for him." Keller cried out, indicating the rapidly fluctuating vital signs with wide arms.

"You think you can stop us?" Turner sneered nastily; with each word his vitals spiked higher yet. "You have no idea how many of us there are."

Ash got to his feet and rushed towards Turner, finally he was revealing things they didn't know, things they _needed_ to know.

Keller darted forwards too, sedative in hand. "Tyler, I need to extract now or we'll lose him."

Ash was still reeling after Turner's last words; he knew of others, he knew other people who were compromised, maybe even all of them. "Wait!" He called out to Keller. "We need to know how far this spreads!"

Turner's body stiffened then stated to spasm against the restraints, the machines started to squeal and for a moment Tyler thought that he had actually stopped breathing.

"I will never tell you." The alien entity eventually managed to gasp out a promise, despite the grave fact that Turner's body was shutting down, he could barely remain conscious. "I will kill this host before you get one name out of me."

"Right that's it, I'm ending this." Keller interrupted firmly and pumped Turner with enough sedative to knock him out. He got to work quickly and before Tyler could interrupt he had his equipment on the back of Turner's neck and the incision was made.

Ash closed his mouth and tried to recover from the various shocks he'd just experienced. As he watched the Doctor work, effectively ending the interrogation forever, he began to fume silently. The agent began to pace as he fumed silently.

When he passed his chair he was sorely tempted to take his frustration out on it. The only thing stopping him was the sight of Keller's hands deep in Turner's skin; Ash didn't want to interrupt him now he had started the procedure. He wished the Doc had listened to him and delayed just a little longer. How were they supposed to get answers now?

It didn't take Keller long to fish out the worm, he deposited the thing in a nearby bowl. Ash immediately noticed that it wasn't moving; it looked dead just like all the others they had seen. Turner's vitals began to normalise as soon as the worm was removed, his heart rate stabilised and all his stats levelled out earning a relieved sigh from the Doc.

So, the worm had been killing its host.

When the danger was over and Keller had finished treating Turner, Ash rounded on him angrily. "You had no right."

Keller's eyes blazed and he volleyed a return emboldened by a fire known to live within Doctor's; they fought passionately for each and every life under their care. "I have every right, I'm here to save lives Tyler. I thought you were too."

Ash was not about to be guilt-tripped, it was his job to look at the bigger picture here. Keller may have just wasted their only source of information that could save countless lives. He pinched his lips together and he responded through his teeth with forced restraint. "What's one life compared to every living being in the Federation?"

"I don't deal in numbers or arbitrary figures Tyler. I look at the lives in front of me and do what I can to make sure people live." Keller argued back fiercely, gesturing to Commander Turner as he continued to clean up the messy wound at the back of his head.

_Okay, that guilt-trip worked._ Ash hadn't thought about the _real_ Turner once and he felt awful because of it. There was a real human victim here, right in front of him and he could have killed him in search for answers. The Commander hadn't asked to be taken over by an alien parasite, it was easy to forget there was someone underneath all the anger and violence of the worm.

"Is he going to be okay?" He eventually asked, eyeing the still unconscious officer.

Keller's expression softened when he saw that he'd finally got through Ash's thick skull. "I think so yes."

"And the thing? Is it dead?"

The Doctor glanced over at the bloodied corpse in the bowl and grimaced. "Yes. It died as soon as I removed it from the body."

Looking at the cause of all this chaos brought him back around to regret; he regretted that they couldn't have found a way to question the parasite without endangering Turner. "Think about what we could have learned from it, we don't even know what they're called, let alone who else has been compromised." He muttered wistfully without the heat from earlier; now he was just saddened by the lost opportunity.

Keller shook his head incredulously. "You heard it, they weaken the bodies they inhabit and by the looks of it they can kill them at will, like a suicide pill. It was never going to tell you anything and we wouldn't have been able to keep it alive to question it."

He was right of course, but that didn't make it an easier pill to swallow. It just felt bitter, like he'd failed. The huge weight of the task was threatening to crash down and drown him; he was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the imminent threat he didn't know enough of. It was _his_ job to know, and he didn't.

"I feel like we're back at square one; we don't know anything." He moaned miserably, feeling weary and tired, sinking back in his chair exhausted and not sure where to go from here.

"You know that's not true. We know how to detect the worms, we know how to extract them without killing the hosts and we know Starfleet has been compromised." Keller lectured him sternly, not letting Tyler wallow and reminding him of everything they had done so far, of how far they'd come and how much they'd learnt.

The Doctor moved towards Ash and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, wanting to reassure and snap him out of the his defeatist attitude. "Do you know what else we know?" He prompted.

Tyler locked eyes with Keller and replied morbidly. "We know we have an invasion on our hands."

* * *

"That was 2 weeks ago. Since then we have been searching through everyone in Starfleet, following the criteria." Tyler explained to his current audience.

Captain Pike was frozen in his chair, not like he had much of choice about the whole sitting still thing, but the main reason he wasn't moving was because his mind was still spinning. Tyler certainly hadn't disappointed; that had been one _hell_ of a story.

"High ranking or in a position of influence, recently been in contact with other Federation personnel and exhibiting strange behaviour." Pike supplied quietly. Judging by that story he'd just heard, Tyler was in a difficult position.

"Exactly. We've identified several further officers who have been compromised. Not everyone we've picked up has been infected by the parasite but so far we've managed to keep our mission secret." Ash leaned forward seriously, clutching his weapon harder. "And it has to stay that way."

Pike caught the movement out of the corner of his eye but said nothing. As much as he hated having a phaser pointed his way, he understood the need more so now. Chris also understood Ash's previous iteration of how important it was that no-one on Enterprise knew that he was here or why.

Tyler noticed how tightly he was holding the phaser; he unclenched his hand and made an effort to relax back in his chair. "We don't know how people get the worms attached to their spine's in the first place, there has never been scars nor any indication how it could physically happen. Doctor Keller has a theory that it may be ingested through the mouth and that the other compromised hosts actually pass on the worm to the new host."

_Well, that thought was unpleasant._ Pike had never heard of anything like it, maybe Tyler had been right when he said he wouldn't believe him…

"We've learned that each parasite is aware of others and that the first deaths were seen as suspicious. It made us change our tactics. Now that the host isn't killed we send them back out into their normal positions, fully briefed and they act as agents for our task force. To the outside eye they are still them, to the other compromised officers hopefully they don't arise suspicion and if anyone contacts them they report it directly to us."

The plan made sense, and having a wider network would help with identifying more compromised personal, but how far did this go? What if command was compromised and was that why section 31 hadn't contacted them?

Chris started to feel a sinking feeling in his gut. "Do you think Command has been compromised? Is Earth safe?"

Tyler sighed heavily and ran a weary hand over his face. "Honestly Captain, I don't know, and I can't risk barging down their doors until we know more."

"You need more people looking." Chris surmised, understanding the problem.

"We do, but it's a matter of trust." He looked pointedly at the Captain.

Which brought Pike back around to the fact that he was tied _very tightly_ to a chair, and Tyler thought he was a threat; for some reason he believed Pike was compromised. He was a Captain and the Enterprise had been docked at a starbase recently, but he was pretty sure he hadn't been acting out of character?

"Why exactly do you think I've been compromised?"

Tyler leaned back and studied Pike. "Besides the obvious; Captain of the flagship. We've also received word that you've been accessing sensitive material recently, information that you shouldn't have even been searching for let alone actually getting access too."

Pike frowned; he glanced over to his computer and the dots clicked into place. "That's why you were on my computer." He blinked and shook his head all of a sudden. "But I haven't been accessing any sensitive material. When exactly was this?"

Tyler studied him seriously but eventually gave in and answered. "A week ago. Your credentials were used and it was traced back to the Enterprise. When I found out I headed over here, I hoped it was some kind of computer error but the Enterprise computer has records of it happening." He glanced over his shoulder at the terminal. "But I couldn't find the records to match in here. That terminal was not used to access the material and according to your ship's system you were off the ship when the information was accessed."

"Doesn't that tell you that it couldn't have been me?" Chris pointed out.

Tyler didn't look at all convinced. "Maybe. But if not you then who? Who else could have used your codes and where from?"

"I don't know but…"

Pike was interrupted by Number One's voice coming out of the terminal. "Commander Una to Captain Pike."

Tyler snapped round to the sudden interruption, the phaser coming up automatically as he got to his feet abruptly.

Pike watched the agent's panic grow as he tried to work out what to do about a potential breach. Now that Chris had heard the importance of Tyler's mission and how crucial it was it stayed secret, he could understand how having Number One finding out was terrifying.

"What does she want?"

Chris couldn't think straight and in that moment he couldn't think of a single reason. "I have no idea Tyler, that's the truth."

They both waited in silence for a few moments, whilst Tyler continued to stare at the terminal like it was about to come to life and bite his head off.

Tyler's body sagged in defeat and he looked back at Pike. "I'm guessing she's the kind of person who would come in person if you didn't respond."

Pike smiled despite himself. Ash had just predicted Una's behaviour to a T. Hell yes she would, his XO didn't let him get away with anything.

"Most likely." He admitted.

Tyler swore and glanced from the terminal to Pike, whilst he struggled to come to a decision. Eventually he nodded and went over to accept the call. "You remember what I said about keeping this secret, I won't hesitate to stun you if you say anything out of turn. If you do you'll be putting her and your whole crew at risk."

Pike knew the stakes, he didn't want this getting out anymore than Tyler did, especially if there was a compromised officer aboard which in itself was terrifying.

"I understand Tyler, I'll deal with it." He promised.

Ash studied him and clearly saw enough to trust him, so he took the plunge and accepted the call.

"Pike here." Chris called out in what he hoped was a normal sounding voice.

There was a beat before Number One replied. "I was about to send out a search party, you don't usually avoid me Chris." Her tone was playful and he could just imagine the mischievous look on her face as she joked.

Pike chuckled warmly. "No need for that Una, call off the dogs." He noticed Tyler getting antsy so pushed the conversation on. "Was there something you needed?"

There was a silence on the other end; enough of one to make Chris go over his words. Had he said something wrong? He was pretty sure he hadn't...

"Um yeah..." he heard what sounded like something being moved around her end and her voice sounded a little off. Tyler picked up on it too and he shot Pike a warning look. Chris shrugged back, it wasn't like he had said anything wrong.

"I received that report you wanted to look at from Starbase 9, are you free for me to bring it over now?"

Chris frowned; why on earth wouldn't she just send it? And to be honest he couldn't remember what report she was talking about, but then again he had a lot on his mind at the moment.

"I've actually got a couple of things to get on with this evening Una, do you want to just send the report over and I'll get to it later?" He thought his answer sounded like him, he made extra sure that his voice was steady and warm like normal.

Which was why he was surprised when there was another silence on her end. What was he doing wrong? Tyler looked about ready to cut off the connection, so it was a good job when Una finally replied sounding mostly like herself.

"Sure Captain, I'll send it right over. Sorry to disturb you so late."

There was her normal chirpy attitude they shared together, god knows where it had been earlier.

Aware that Tyler was getting edgy, Pike wrapped the call up. "No problem Number One, I'll see you later."

"Goodnight Captain."

The connection cut off and Tyler spent a few minutes just staring at the terminal, a frown etching into his forehead slowly but surely. He eventually turned his scrutiny to Pike.

"Something was wrong with that conversation."

Even though he didn't know Number one well, Tyler was a trained operative who wouldn't have missed the strange pauses. Pike honestly didn't know what he'd said wrong, he was pretty sure he hadn't. "Hey you heard what I said, I don't know what that was."

Despite his reassurances Chris could see the matter was still eating at Tyler. "I want to believe you Captain, but every time I think I've got this all wrong you go and give me another reason to doubt you."

The cold suspicion had returned and Chris could see that Tyler was edging closer to him being an imposter, which to be honest was based on circumstantial guess-work at best.

In a moment of weakness Pike let the situation get to him, and yelled at the agent. "You need to start trusting me, you said it yourself I wasn't on the ship when that information was accessed. Someone else in my crew is compromised, this ship is in danger every second you spend wasting your time on me."

Ash barked a laugh and shook his head. "You expect me just to take you at your word after everything I've told you? Sorry Captain but I can't trust you, not until you've passed the test."

Without another word he moved into the other room and returned with a bag, from which he pulled a trail of equipment.

"The mental lie detector?" Pike guessed after taking one look at the electrodes, using the phrase that Tyler had coined in his story.

"Uhhuh." Tyler acknowledged, focussed on what he was doing as he untangled the equipment.

An electronic beeping sound emitted from Pike's door, the sound indicating that someone had just tried to enter but the computer had blocked them.

Chris frowned at the door, there were only two people who could enter his quarters without ringing the doorbell, himself and Number One, but he had programmed his door to let her in...

"Shit." Tyler muttered and leapt over to the computer terminal, he swiftly pulled up the video feed from outside. What he saw made him swear again followed by turning on Pike angrily.

"I knew you tipped her off." Tyler growled, he had swivelled the screen round to show Pike the video, specifically the image of Number One outside his quarters frowning at the door control.

Chris stared at the image and then it hit him all at once; the reason she was here, and the reason she had sounded so strange over the phone.

"The date night..." He groaned wanting to slap his head. He couldn't believe he forgot all about it, and God, the entire conversation earlier was Una's way of asking if he was ready for her. No wonder why she had sounded so confused...

To top it all off Tyler was now shooting daggers at him; he was visibly trying to control his panic as the situation spiralled out of control. He stepped closer to Pike, a thunderous expression on his face.

"Date night?" He looked half a second away from exploding completely.

Pike licked his lips nervously as Tyler continued to stalk closer to him. He tried to work out how he could explain this without looking like he had betrayed Tyler's trust, would he believe he had just forgotten?

"Look I know it sounds stupid but I forgot okay, I honestly didn't mean too-" Tyler reached out suddenly and gripped the gag from around Pike's neck, shoving it back into place muffling the Captain's words. "_-mmmphhhh._"

"Don't even try to explain, you've done enough damage already." Tyler took out the phaser and glared down at Pike coldly.

"I'll handle this now." After the threat he abruptly turned on his heel and headed over to the main living area.

Pike didn't like the tone Tyler had just used and he didn't know what he was going to do, but whatever it was it wouldn't be good for Una and that was what concerned Pike the most.

He tried to say "_What are you going to do?_" But of course all that came out was incoherent mumbling.

Tyler glared at him and pointed the phaser his way. "No, you shut-up and let me deal with this."

Ash went to the terminal and turned all of the lights off except for the bedroom light which he left dimmed. He had the phaser out and pointed at the door.

"Don't make a sound." He hissed to Pike before reaching out to release the lock on the door.

Chris watched Tyler slide back into the shadows and soon enough he couldn't make him out anymore, God knows how Number One would.

Pike hoped to hell Tyler wouldn't hurt her, he already felt bad enough about dragging her into this. The worst thing was that he had forgotten their date night! Number One was going to kill him, well that was if Tyler didn't beat her to it.


	4. Chapter 4

Una was confused, like seriously, really, completely confused. At first she had thought Chris was teasing or perhaps playing a game, then she pondered the idea of her own insanity, but finally she concluded that something was wrong with the Captain. He didn't just forget things and he hadn't sounded like himself at all.

The nagging feeling that something was wrong ate away at her, so much so that she decided to do something about it. Una had already been ready to leave and head to his quarters so it was a quick decision to decide to go. She needed to see him in person and make sure everything was okay, and if he had just forgotten...

She stopped by her desk on the way out and plucked out a phaser, setting it to stun and tucking it behind her waist. For some reason her instincts were telling her she might need it.

Una made the familiar journey to Pike's quarters and went to let herself in, keying in the access code Chris had given her. She frowned and almost stepped head first into the still-closed door; she had expected it to open but nothing.

Una glanced at the controls and tried inputting her code again, but even after the second go the doors refused to budge.

Why would the Captain revoke her access?

_He wouldn't._

Now her mild concern had creeped up to panic. What was going on?

She was staring at the door dumbly for some time, figuring out what the hell to do next. Just when she was about to leave, the door suddenly clicked and swished open, admitting her finally.

Una glanced into the darkened space but saw no-one, and heard nothing. The only light coming from within the quarters led from Chris' bedroom but it was dimmed.

Was it possible he had let the long shift get to him and collapsed asleep? She didn't want to overreact. Imagine calling in a security team for them all to storm into the Captain's quarters and wake him up?

Her curiosity got the better of her and she tiptoed into the space, not understanding why the lights weren't coming on as she walked in.

It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, her gaze swept around the living space. She saw that Chris had left his terminal on, but that was the only thing she spotted that had been recently used.

She felt the sudden urge to arm herself so did, reaching behind and pulling out the phaser she had brought along. Strangely holding it didn't help abate her nerves, Number One resisted the urge to tremble and stepped into the dark space.

By the time Una reached the doorway to the bedroom she had the phaser pointed steadily ahead, her hands holding onto the lifeline with a firm grip. When the first officer rounded the corner she almost dropped it. Sat strapped to a chair, hair mussed, face flushed and mouth gagged was Captain Pike.

She automatically took a step towards him, her face falling completely as panic and concern took over. His blue eyes met hers and she saw them widen and he too began to panic. He shook his head wildly and mumbled something that she couldn't understand, but whatever it was it sounded desperate.

Una realised her mistake then and there; she had turned her back on the dark part of the quarters, where the actual threat was.

"Don't move." A voice rumbled from behind her.

Una froze and closed her eyes with a grimace; what a rookie mistake. She should have just called all of security when she had the chance. She opened her eyes and locked eyes with Chris. His blue eyes looked so sad and his chest had deflated telling her everything she needed to know about their situation; they were screwed.

She held the phaser tightly until the mysterious voice spoke again, ordering her to get rid of the only defence she and Chris had.

"Toss the phaser to the side."

Wait a minute, she knew that voice.

"Tyler?" She queried, watching Chris' face for a reaction.

He gulped and nodded minutely, letting her know her memory wasn't failing her.

"Drop the weapon Number One, I don't want to hurt you." Tyler sounded strained and just a tad fearful.

Una started to turn round, instinctively letting her anger and incredulity take over. "You don't want to-"

Suddenly there was a shot that went just wide of her, almost scorching her skin on the way past. It stopped her mid-turn and she froze completely.

"Turn back around, I mean it." His voice sounded steadier but she wasn't convinced, what the hell was Tyler playing at.

Number One slowly turned back to face Chris and saw that his eyes were fully on her, his pupils wide, his breathing fast showing just how worried he was.

"What the hell is going on Tyler?" She spat.

She heard him take a few steps towards her. "No questions, not until you lose the weapon."

Una analysed the voice and the demand, unsure whether he would actually do what he had threatened. Her hesitancy was noted.

"If you don't believe I'm serious, ask your Captain."

Una looked at Chris and he glared at Tyler. Eventually he met her gaze and nodded once. Well that settled it, if Chris was telling her someone was dangerous then she knew better than not to listen.

She tossed the phaser to the side and held her hands up in the air, hoping to bring the insufferable tension and distrust down to a more manageable level.

"Why are you here Tyler?"

"Business for Section 31, I've not gone rogue incase that was what you were wondering." Ash replied, she could tell by his voice that he was moving around but she dared't turn around to check.

She glanced back to Chris and couldn't help but crack a joke at his expense. "Well that's good, I thought I'd interrupted something..."

Chris closed his eyes and groaned, his cheeks blushing deliciously. She heard Tyler stumble behind her and had to stifle a grin.

"Interrupted something?"

Did she really have to spell out her joke? Chris seemed to have gotten it immediately if his embarrassed expression was anything to go by.

"Do I really need to spell it out Tyler?" She sighed.

Ash choked on a cough as he finally understood. "Uh no, no need." His nervous answer did not match the situation, or his status as head of Section 31. Who knew something like that could get him all hot and bothered?

"You can remove his gag now by the way, as long as you two keep it down. I've still got a phaser pointing at you."

Una rolled her eyes at the threat, the danger level she was getting off of Tyler had reduced rapidly, especially since she had made him stutter. Still, Chris had warned her how serious this was so she remained wary.

Una made her way over to Chris who watched her movements, she reached up to brush her fingers against his lips when a wicked idea popped into her head, one which may serve to throw Tyler off even more.

"Are you sure we should take it out?" She tilted her head to the side and winked at Chris playfully. "I think it looks cute."

Chris blinked in surprise at her first comment and positively reeled at her second. When her words registered his eyes blazed, he looked on the edge of anger and growled under the gag. She recognised the look well, the no-nonsense look that he usually held on the bridge. Even though he couldn't speak she got the message loud and clear.

_'Take this thing out right now or so help me God Una...'_

"What?!" Tyler positively squeaked.

_Mission accomplished._ Tyler sounded like he had nearly fallen over.

"I'm joking okay." She sighed and lifted the gag from Chris' mouth gently, letting it hang loosely around his neck. "It's what I do in stressful situations."

Chris' eye roll was his way of saying that he knew that was exactly what she did. The annoyance from her playfulness disappeared and he just sighed tiredly.

Una's smile dropped as the seriousness of the situation sank in; she cracked jokes to hide just how worried she really was. Seeing Chris _like this_ and in danger was not a pleasant feeling. She moved her hand to the side of his face and stroked gently, revelling in the feeling of his soft hair against her hand. Chris leaned into the grasp and closed his eyes, losing himself in the moment. Una studied his face and body for any signs of injury or pain, the only she noticed was his wrists looked a little red under the zip ties.

He opened his eyes and managed a strained smile. "Are you okay?" She whispered, eyes full of concern.

Chris' crystal blue eyes bore into her own and he nodded, his expression serious and not his usual charming deflection. "I'm okay." He suddenly laughed nervously. "Sorry about forgetting date night."

_What?!_ So the little bugger had forgotten… Although he clearly had had his hands full. She breathed deeply in through her nose and let her annoyance fade away. She could see that Chris was waiting patiently for her verdict and his brows scrunched up ever so slightly as she stayed silent.

"You had a lot on your mind." She accepted, indicating his situation. "You're forgiven."

He breathed out a huge sigh of relief and cracked a smile despite the situation, Una did too until she heard scuffling behind her and remembered they weren't alone.

Proving her point Tyler finally interrupted. "Are you two love birds done?"

Una turned on the spot, naturally putting most of her body in front of Chris and glared at Tyler._ "Love birds?"_ She spat bitterly, how dare _he_ come in to their lives, ruin their night by holding them at gunpoint and then judge them.

Tyler had been carrying a chair which he had dropped just inside the bedroom space, he was dressed all in black as was custom of shadowy Section 31 agents. He gulped heavily and met her angry stare, the phaser still pointing their way. It was the honestly the only thing keeping her in place.

"Sorry." Ash managed weakly between them. "I make jokes in situations like this." He managed to keep mostly a straight face but was given away by the slightest of smirks.

Number One shook her head in disbelief, the balls on this one… "You don't get to pass judgement on us."

Tyler looked at the pair of them and then shrugged. "I wasn't, I just never knew you two were…" He gestured vaguely between the two of them, not knowing the right word.

"Well, if we're going under Section 31's radar then we're doing something right." Una muttered.

Ash smirked and then walked away from the chair, gesturing to it with the weapon. "Please take a seat."

Una glanced over her shoulder at Chris forlornly, she didn't want to leave him but he urged her on with his eyes, so with a heavy sigh she walked over to the chair and sat down in it.

"Ash." Chris interrupted, making his first sound in a while. "You need to tell her what you told me if you want to keep this contained."

Contained? What an odd choice of words and what secret was Tyler keeping from her? Her curiosity peaked and she stared at Ash expectedly.

"Not yet Captain, you know it's not safe until she's restrained." He then threw over a pile of zip ties that landed at her feet.

She eyed the offensive items with a scowl. "Safe for who?"

"You actually." Tyler supplied before adding. "Not to mention everyone on board."

She scoffed, did he really expect that line to work? Her incredulous look took a knock when she met her Captain's eye and noticed he wasn't laughing.

"He's telling the truth One, I know this is a crazy situation but he does have a good reason and believe it or not this is probably the only way of keeping the ship and crew safe."

Una trusted Christopher Pike with her life, no question, no hesitancy. She took his word as gospel and even though it seemed barmy and mad to her, she picked up one of the zip ties and tied her leg to the chair. After both were done she glanced back up at Ash.

"Hands too." He indicated to the two left on the floor.

Una managed the first one with a little difficulty, but needed Tyler to come over and tighten the second. He then proceeded to wrap ripped up bits of bedding around her chest until she was secured tightly to the chair, just like Chris.

When he was done Tyler pulled up a chair and picked up some freaky looking equipment from the bed and began unwinding it. One glance at Chris said he knew exactly what this mystery thing was, but it didn't seem to be causing him concern or panic.

"This better be one good story." She muttered.

Ash strangely just smiled at her, then he jumped into telling the craziest tale Una had ever heard.

* * *

Chris watched Una's face move from mild intrigue, to disbelief to outright shock as Tyler gave her the run-down just like he had with Pike beforehand. Hearing the tale again, albeit briefer as Ash was clearly aware that the longer he stayed the more chance for interruption, did nothing to take the edge off, nor did it make it sound any less crazy.

Whilst Tyler was telling the story he was busy setting up the mind scanner and had it connected to the terminal screen. Chris didn't know whether the output would be images or just data; Tyler hadn't mentioned it during the tale.

Worryingly Ash also set aside a bunch of medical supplies; sedatives and the like. Chris swallowed nervously when he noticed a scalpel appear alongside some other surgical implements.

Unless Ash had gone to a medical school in the past year, he definitely wasn't qualified to perform any procedures.

"Shouldn't a Doctor handle that bit?" Chris interrupted.

Ash glanced from the knife in his hand to Pike and smiled. "Oh I have no intention of using this, emergencies only." He tried to reassure them with an easy smile; Pike was not reassured in the slightest.

The idea that there might be a parasite in him was terrifying, what if the hosts weren't aware of the presence until the worms needed to take control?

When the story was over Number One whistled and admitted that it was a good story, and that she wasn't sure if it were more likely whether Tyler had lost his mind or that an alien worm invasion was underway. Chris had to admit she had a point, Ash just waved off the joke though and made the final touches, attaching some wires to the Captain's head that led to the terminal.

"You said it's not painful?" Chris prompted, feeling his throat get a little dry as the gravity of the situation sunk in.

Tyler glanced at him and then crossed his arms. "No, I've tried it myself it's fine." A corner of his mouth lifted up. "Well actually it's maybe a little ticklish."

"Ticklish?" Pike replied incredulously

"Like at the back of your mind." Tyler clarified. "You can feel something's there but no it's not painful."

He adjusted a few dials on the machinery and then lights began to switch on and a low hum filled the room. Chris felt sick to his stomach; he had unpleasant memories of people messing with his mind, _painful_ memories.

Ash noticed his discomfort and probably understood why, the head of Section 31 had everyones files and something like Talos IV was well known amongst the higher ups and black ops. They had even considered trying to turn illusion into a weapon at some point.

"Have you ever taken part in a mind meld?"

Chris glanced upwards and took a deep breath, trying to get ahold of himself. "Yes."

Number One looked surprised by his answer, Tyler didn't. He just nodded. "I've been told it feels just like that." He left Pike with that information and carried on setting up the machine.

Chris felt like a weight had been lifted, a situation that was like a mind-meld he could deal with. He had participated in one before with Spock and that hadn't been painful, it hadn't even been uncomfortable. Deciding to trust Tyler and take him on his word, he tried to release the rest of his panic and concern.

When Tyler walked back over it looked like he was all done with the preparations. "You ready?" He asked, giving Chris a little bit of control even though he didn't have to, Chris appreciated it.

"What do I have to do?" His voice didn't waver like he thought it might which was a plus, Una was frowning at him though telling him he wasn't doing a stellar job of hiding his emotions like he first thought.

"Nothing, just relax and let me do all the work." Ash replied and sat down beside the controls, with full view of both occupants of the room and the view screen. Tyler's hand hovered over what Pike presumed was the starting sequence, he sought the Captain's gaze clearly still waiting for the go ahead.

Chris took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind. He let the turbulent emotions go and felt his heart rate begin to decrease slowly. After taking one last look at Una he nodded to Ash. "I'm ready."

* * *

"Hey wait up!" Chris yelled out into the forest but his words fell on deaf ears; his brothers had already fled off far ahead into the trees.

He tried to catch up but even after speeding up to a sprint he just couldn't get his brothers in sight again, his little 6 year old legs couldn't move fast enough. No matter how much he practised, his body just wasn't up to the speed standard of his older brothers so once again he ended up falling behind and hunching over to catch his breath.

They were playing, as they always did, in the forest just outside of the Pike family home. His mum had only just started letting him out with his older siblings provided they looked after him but unsurprisingly enough they had soon run off and told him if he wanted to hang around with them then he'd have to keep up. So now here he was; left behind and with no idea where his brothers had raced off too.

Chris pouted into the distance and began to sulk, that was until he heard a low moan from the floor. He followed the noise to the ground and his eyes soon sought the source of the wailing sound; an injured rabbit. It was flailing around on the ground with blood dripping slowly from multiple wounds, its cries of desperation split through Chris' heart and he immediately rushed forward to see to the poor creature. After one look at the rabbit he could see that it had been the victim of an airgun; he could see spent pellets around the area. Someone must have shot at the poor thing for fun and just left it for dead. Chris scooped up the tiny dying creature in his arms and raced back towards home, his weariness completely eradicated as he felt the small life in his hands fade away.

"Mom, mom!" He shouted as he rocketed into the kitchen, the squirming creature still in his grip. He was sweaty, grimy and his front covered in blood so when his mother came out to see what the commotion was all about she held a hand up to her mouth and almost screamed.

"Christopher!"

Amelia Pike stormed into the kitchen, a little frightened and mostly panicked by her son's desperate cry for help. As soon as she caught sight of the state of him; the dirt, the blood, and the frightened expression on his face, it set her mother-bear instincts into overdrive.

She rushed over to her son and took in the details. "Christopher, where are you hurt?"

Chris's forehead creased in confusion, he then started shaking his head as he worked out what his mom was asking. "No it's not me. I found this little guy out in the forest!" He shoved the creature he'd been huddling up in his arms protectively towards his mother, the fur still twitching minutely. "Somebody shot it!"

Amelia took her first proper breath since seeing her son covered in blood. For a moment there she thought Chris had been seriously hurt, but no, instead he'd found a dying animal and had brought it in, almost scaring his mother to death in the process.

"Come and put him up here." She ordered quickly, clearing a space on top of the counter.

Chris placed the small bloodied creature up on the counter and they both heard it whimper. Amelia and Christopher Pike frowned at the small thing and watched for any sign of life. Amelia was not a vet but she could tell by the poor creature's injuries that it was on the way out.

"Is it going to be okay?" He asked fearfully.

His mother checked the small creature over but soon found that it was far too late. Her grimace deepened when she saw what Christopher had mentioned, the clear pellet shots peppering the hide of the animal. It had been killed cruelly and needlessly, and left to die slowly.

"I'm sorry Chris but no. It's already too late"

Chris felt tears begin to prick at his eyes and he furiously wiped them away, he looked at the bloodied corpse and felt an unfamiliar anger begin to bleed into his words. "Why would anyone do this?"

Amelia crouched down and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, her eyes glistened with emotion. "There are some people in this world who are cruel, and who do bad things." Chris felt his mother's grip on his shoulders tighten and she turned serious. He recognised the look; it was reserved for when his mother was telling him something very important and he fully intended to take it on board. "It's our responsibility to fight against cruelty, to stop bad things from happening to innocents, and to protect life at all costs."

Chris tried to get his little mind around exactly what she was saying; he would never hurt anyone let alone a little animal so he was still struggling to understand that a person could have done this.

"Why?" Was all he managed, his brain spinning and trying to take on board what his mom was trying to teach him, he could tell that this was a lesson he should be listening to and he didn't want to upset his mom even more than she already looked.

His mum just smiled and ruffled his hair. "Because it's right."


	5. Chapter 5

Chris yelled out when his leg buckled again; he had twisted the limb on the climb up and hadn't been able to put weight on it for the past 20 minutes or so. He, his two older brothers and his dad were out on their annual camping trip where the objective was to teach the kids survival skills, and give them a taste of life away from technology.

The teenager laid his head back against the leaves miserably, breathing in and out through his mouth and trying to block out the pain from his leg. Every time he tried to get up and drag himself back to camp he crashed back to the floor miserably, and this time he decided he was going to stay there.

Chris heard footsteps approach from ahead and lifted his head blearily to see his father heading towards him from the direction of the camp. He studied his son on the ground with a frown and seemed to be studying him for any serious injuries.

Chris was just glad someone knew he was injured, he didn't want to lie out here for hours before his brothers came back looking. He felt himself grow happier at the thought of soon being around the campfire with an icepack on his leg; his rescue had arrived.

"Get up Chris."

_What? Does he think I'm lying down here for a holiday?_

"I twisted my ankle." Chris explained miserably, shifting the leg to prove it which caused his face to crease with pain.

Chris was expecting pity and a sudden rush to help, he did not expect his father's expression to remain stoic and for his resolve to remain resolute. "Get up." He repeated plainly.

Chris was confused, did his dad not understand that he was hurt? He had been _trying_ to get up and carry on loads of times but he hadn't managed to get far. "I don't know if I can." He admitted, his voice quivering.

His dad crouched down and stared into Chris' eyes intensely, he wasn't angry nor disappointed, in fact his expression betrayed no emotion whatsoever. "Christopher, to survive out there in the real world you need to get up and carry on, no matter what knocks you down."

Chris blinked in surprise. His dad had dabbled in teaching all the kids survival skills over the years but never anything like this. He was actively telling his son to get his ass up and drag himself forward, and he wasn't offering to help. He stared up into his fathers face and saw the determination there, he saw that he would not budge on this. Chris knew then he didn't have a choice unless he wanted to spend hours in the dirt; he had to get up.

He learnt a valuable lesson that day that he carried with him for the rest of his life, never let the world keep you down. Get up.

* * *

Cadet Pike was in his final year in Starfleet Academy, two weeks shy of graduating. Yesterday he had finished his final exam, last night he had begun celebrating with his friends, but this morning his entire world had changed forever.

He could hear the happy cries from outside his window, of people enjoying the sun and continuing the end of year celebrations. Chris was in no mood to celebrate, he didn't think he ever would be again. Not after...

Another tremble shook through his body and he breathed deeply through a sob, trying to choke it off but failing miserably. He closed his fist around the symbol that had given him strength since his world had come crashing down, the delta shield of Starfleet, it was the only thing keeping him grounded since he had gotten the phone call. The phone call informing him that his mom had died in a shuttle accident.

Chris had dropped the phone after being told and fallen to the floor, losing the ability to breathe and think. He had spent hours on that floor in the corner, silently sobbing and coming to terms with the fact that the person he loved most was no longer in this world.

He glanced at the family picture he had on his bedside through bleary eyes, his face stained by tears. His eyes zeroed in on his mother, standing in the middle of the group encompassing her huge family like a mother bear, grinning widely and happy. The way Chris felt now he didn't know if he would ever be happy again. He felt like a part of him had been ripped away, leaving behind a huge chasm.

As he listened to the celebrations outside, the only emotion he could cling onto was jealousy. The smiling, happy cadets would have their own mothers and loved ones with them, celebrating their graduation. More than anything, Chris had wanted his mother to see him achieve his dream and finally graduate after the long years of study and hard work.

His mother had been his biggest advocator, the person who had picked him up in his dark days and deepest struggles. She was always on the other end of the phone if he needed her, but never again.

She had been talking about his ceremony for months in advance, proudly telling her friends that her son was going to become a Starfleet Captain one day. Chris had always gotten embarrassed when his mom had said that, hoping that one day he could live up to her expectations and make her proud; now he was more determined than ever.

What he wouldn't give to just talk to her one more time, to tell her that she made him into the man he was today and it was her strength and support that pushed him through his hardest hurdles in life. Now he had come across a hurdle he didn't know if he could make and the one person he wanted to talk to wasn't there anymore; it was tearing him up inside.

He closed his eyes and let the tears flow freely, the words he wanted to say stuck on his throat as he gripped the delta shield tighter and tighter until he thought he was going to snap it. The only thing keeping him sane at this point was the promise he had made to his new life, the promise that his mom had once told him and the words he would now live by. _'Starfleet is a promise.'_

* * *

"Status report." Captain April ordered, his knuckles white from holding onto the flight stick but his outward mood was calm and unflustered despite the situation.

Lieutenant Pike was the stark opposite of his Captain's confident calm exterior. He checked the current information on screen, reeling back when another blast hit the shuttle and sparks scorched his hands. "Three enemy ships on our tail, two have full shields the other is down to 50%." He tapped away at some more screens and knocked the machinery until it showed him their own readings. "Our shields are down to 12%."

They were on a research mission, away from the Enterprise and now cut off from her safety whilst having to fend off ships that were ignoring their attempts to hail. They had demanded to board the ship and when the Captain had refused had started firing without prejudice. They were outgunned, outnumbered and their shields were getting severely low. The situation was grim, he knew that and April knew that so why did the man look so calm?

"We need another solution, we clearly can't shoot our way out of this." April mused, staring at the tactical screens and looking for an answer to their problems.

Chris had glanced at the screen once or twice and noticed a nearby asteroid field, one that they could reach if they used the last of their power to boost the engines. The magnetic disruptions inside such a field would throw off their position, the enemy shuttles would never find them.

The down side to his crazy idea though was that the asteroid field was deadly, ships did not just walk into the field and fly out the other side unscathed. It would take an extremely skilled pilot to navigate the crazy space, their sensors would be useless so flying would have to manual. Chris had done something similar in a simulation and he was pretty confident about his flying skills but he did not want to be responsible for killing his Captain in his first month aboard a new ship. Their shuttle suddenly rocked again from a near miss and he realised doing nothing was worse than taking action.

"Sir, I suggest we head into the field. We can lose them inside." Chris tapped at the space, zooming in on the projected field on their map.

Just watching the scans it made him nervous, everything inside was huge and moving so fast, taken from one extreme to the other by the gravity and other forces at play. One direct hit by anything in there and their shuttle would be toast, what with their shields as they were.

April shot up and looked at Chris like he had just grown two heads. "You do realise that our sensors won't work in that field Lieutenant. We'd be flying blind and I don't have the skill to keep this craft from being smashed to pieces in there."

Chris took a deep breath before answering, realising what he was committing too but deep down fully believing it. "I can do this Sir." He could do this, he _had_ done this in training. He was a bloody good pilot and if the Captain were to trust him he had to trust himself.

April studied him, they both shook after another explosion and the computer helpfully informed them that their shields were down to 8% and power was failing. The Captain's stare was unnerving but Chris held his ground. Eventually he nodded. "Alright, take us in kid."

Chris wasted no further time, he plotted the course and threw all available power at the engines to make the initial jump to the edge of the field, just missing getting blown to pieces by a torpedo in the process. April stood up and relinquished the pilot's seat to Chris who jumped in eagerly, they both strapped in and took a deep breath as they saw the first asteroids approaching through the view screen.

When their battered shuttle reached the entrance to the field Chris turned the computers and autopilot off and took a hold of the stick, taking a deep breath and falling back into the mindset to fly manual. He hadn't done this in the field in some time but he just let his mind fall back into the training, fall back into the countless hours he had put in the simulators. It's just an exercise, he muttered to himself and dove in.

The ship cruised through the field like a stone hopping across a lake, skimming the surface of space but never being in more than one place for longer than a millisecond. The little pod danced through the chaos faster than the asteroids, it spun with the rocks and drifted along with the gravitational pull.

Chris pulled on all his training and instincts to keep the shuttle in one piece, his view limited to just the front view screen and side windows enough to know the general direction and location of asteroids spinning towards them. It was like a dance, he had to _feel_ the flow of the field and slot into it.

Fighting against a field of this size was suicide, it would be like trying to swim up a waterfall, no the trick was to give into the madness and let the gravity urge the ship onwards, nudging it to the other side step by step when a gap opened up as an asteroid flew out into the unknown.

His arms soon started to feel numb and he felt the strain begin to burn his muscles as the stick continued to shake under his control. The craft wanted to fly into the centre of the chaos, and it was only his hold on the stick that was keeping them just on the edge of destruction. They continued to dance across the field, leaping from section to section until finally the field began to thin out.

Chris had no idea how long they had been in the field, he guessed 20 minutes or so but honestly he didn't know. His only thoughts were on the rocks in front of him and where he needed to put them to be out of their future paths. It was a nightmare of predictions, of mathematics and physics to calculate flight paths and speeds of each and every piece. He was essentially doing the job their computers would usually do, when they weren't corrupted by the gravitational fields.

Eventually they cleared the field and Chris pulled the shuttle to a stop at a safe distance, not quite believing that he was sat in a shuttle with the Captain and not in an exercise, it had felt just like one. He released his tight grip from the fight stick and shook out the cramp in his arms, turning the autopilot back on and automatically scanning the area for the enemies they had been running from.

He belatedly realised he should probably be waiting for some kind of orders, he turned nervously to his Captain and hoped he hadn't embarrassed himself in there or given his commanding officer a heart attack.

To Chris' surprise Robert April was grinning at him; he was actually beaming. He clapped a hand on Chris' shoulder and laughed. "That was some flying son. I've never seen anyone do anything like that." He tilted his head to the side inquisitively. "Where did you learn to fly like that?"

Chris fought to keep the blush off his face from the outlandish compliment. He hadn't thought he had done anything that amazing, but his Captain was looking at him like he'd had just single handedly saved the entire Federation. "I was a test pilot, Sir." He eventually managed, feeling a little self conscious because of the attention but he supposed it wasn't exactly a bad first impression to make with one's Captain.

Captain April's grin remained and he chuckled. "I need to get some more test pilots on my crew."

Chris was aware he was under the Captain's scrutiny again, the man was eyeing him from head to toe as if cataloguing something for the future. He eventually nodded and then entered a course in to the Enterprise's last known position. "I'm never going flying without you Pike. You're my new good luck charm."

Chris gulped and took in the full meaning of the words, the trust and belief his Captain was putting in him. The sense of belonging was a welcome one. Yes, Enterprise was going to be a good posting, he could feel it. "Yes, Captain."

* * *

"Captain watch out!"

That was all the warning Chris had before an explosion rocked the ground 5 metres in front of him and then the shockwave hit.

He was lifted off of his feet and went flying backwards only to smash down hard into the undergrowth. The air was knocked out of his lungs and his head swam; his ears were ringing from the aftermath of the blast.

Chris blinked his eyes open and saw the canopy of trees above him, he heard blaster fire nearby, a thud then footsteps approaching from behind.

The air was filled with smoke and he coughed against the burnt smell, dazed and still trying to comprehend how he had gone from walking alongside Una to being damn near blown up.

"Captain, are you alright?" He glanced up and saw that Una was hovering above him, crouching by his side.

If he hadn't seen her lips moving he wouldn't have attributed the words to her, it sounded so muffled and off. His ears were definitely screwed by the blast.

He managed a nod but gasped as a flash of pain spiked through his head at the movement.

"M'okay." He muttered.

Soon Una was in his vision clearly and he could feel her checking his body for injuries, her eyes swung to land on his face and he recognised how worried she was.

"Una."

She snapped to his face and suddenly descended, planting a hot kiss on his lips. The contact only lasted a few seconds but it sent all of his senses haywire, his mind crashed to a halt and he revelled in the warmth of her taste on his tongue.

Una pulled away as though burned, her face was flushed and she scowled down at a scorch mark on his chest he hadn't noticed. She pulled herself together, and hit him lightly on the shoulder. "Don't do that again."

It was an order born of desperation, out of fear and panic of nearly seeing someone you care about die and Chris understood that. It was where the kiss had been born from, the kiss that would remain unmentioned for years to come.

"Okay." He smiled charmingly, dimples on show. They carried on as nothing more than First Officer and Captain, forgetting or perhaps denying the entire affair had ever taken place.


	6. Chapter 6

"There's a way out of any cage and I'll find it." Pike threatened the alien onlookers who insisted on talking about him like some sort of zoo animal. He hadn't been given a straight answer since awakening and was becoming sick of all the comments about his lack of intelligence. Why was it always him who got kidnapped by the weirdos?

"Despite its frustrations the specimen appears more adaptable than specimens from other planets. We can soon begin the experiment."

Pike stared, aghast, between the two aliens and despite his best efforts fear started to creep into his veins. His heart thumped, and his muscles tensed indicating his body's progress towards a fight or flight reaction. The main problem with that reaction was that neither option was possible. He couldn't force his way out of confinement; these people had already shown they were masters of illusion, they insisted on calling him a specimen and had even mentioned an experiment. Chris wished he had never turned back to Talos IV.

...

"You have to kill him as you did here before." Vina implored.

Pike stared at his would be victim and started to shake his head in horror. This was all just a sick dream; some twisted illusion and he wanted no part in it.

"You can tell my jailers I'm not going along with it. I'm not an animal performing for its supper."

...

Chris glared down at the vial of liquid with disdain, he didn't want to drink anything his captors provided him.

"And if I prefer to-"

"Starve." The keeper interrupted. "You overlook the unpleasant alternative of punishment."

What could be worse punishment than being locked in a cage and forced to fall in love with somebody? To be forced to mate with them like specimens in a lab?

It turned out there was a lot worse that the Talosians could throw at him. Out of nowhere fire sprang to life. It licked his skin, scorching and blistering everywhere it met all the while filling his nostrils with the stench of burnt flesh. Pike flailed around the cell and fell to his knees, wanting to escape the agonising flames but failing; it was everywhere. The heat increased to new levels causing his skin to begin to crack and fall away. He screamed and cried out until his throat was hoarse. He was being burnt alive.

All of a sudden the fire and heat vanished as though it had never been there in the first place. Chris ran his hands over his body and took deep breaths whilst he took stock of his situation. His skin wasn't blistered nor gone and everything was as it should be. Those facts didn't help the tremors, the echoes of pain nor the dull ache running all over his body. The consequences may not be on his body as proof but he had just been burnt alive, and he remembered every agonising moment.

...

"Since you resist the present specimen you now have a selection." The keeper indicated to the new additions to the cell.

Pike ignored the Keepers probing thoughts and words. He focused all of his attention on channelling as much rage and anger as he could manage, knowing that it was the only way to block the keepers control. Unusually it wasn't difficult to conjure up violent thoughts after his own treatment, and now they were threatening his ship, his crew?

"The female you call Number One has the superior mind and would produce highly intelligent children." The keeper was studying Number One with that same hungry look that he did with Pike, it was like he was looking at mice in a cage.

Chris was fuming. He could see how uncomfortable Number One was becoming, the idea of being forced into something like that was sickening. Pike wouldn't let it happen, he couldn't.

"Although she seems to lack emotion this is a pretence. She often has fantasies involving you."

Number One glanced away, her cheeks enflamed red as though burned. The comment only soured Chris' mood and deepened his hatred towards their captors. It made him even more furious to know that they were rummaging through his mind and hers without permission. The Talosians were invading into their relationship and worse their most intimate thoughts, those were supposed to stay between them.

Pike tried to take the attention away from his crew and turn his negative emotions back on the Talosians, he built on all the primitive emotions he could conjure until he succeeded in goading the keeper to breaking point.

The down side to his breakthrough was the response; to put it mildly, the keeper reacted badly. Chris stumbled back and cried out as blinding pain crashed into him from all sides. He felt Number One reach out to grab a hold of his body which was good because his legs were no longer up for supporting him, not now it felt like he had 1000's of knives slicing into his flesh over and over again.

Chris started to fall into the illusion and screamed out when the torture worsened. Deep down he knew there was no physical consequence of the illusion in the end, but that didn't stop the pain. He felt each and every knife like it was fresh and each one chipped away at his resolve and pain threshold.

Blackness descended over Pike's vision. As he was stabbed to death repeatedly he could only fear what was still to come; the Talosians had threatened to bring to life his worst fears and bring about unimaginable agony. He didn't know how much more he could take of this menagerie.

* * *

"How bad is the pain Captain?"

Chris opened his eyes and blearily sought the face of his Science Officer Spock. Maybe it was the dim light or perhaps Pike was just seeing things, but if he didn't know any better Chris would have said the kid looked worried about him.

The Captain shifted and sucked in a wheezing breath, his hand automatically coming up to clutch the gruesome wound in his stomach. He'd had a spear of all things run through him, although the spear had been removed the hole it had left still remained. It hurt like a bitch but it wasn't the worst experience of pain he had experienced.

"I can cope." Pike eventually managed through gritted teeth.

Chris could see out of the corner of his eye that Spock was frowning lightly; it wasn't long before the young Lieutenant started to fuss over the bandages he'd placed. "I wish we had more painkillers but until Enterprise receives our distress signal-"

"It's fine Spock, you've done all you can." Chris interrupted and then grimaced when another wave of agony shot through his body.

He subconsciously leaned more towards the warmth of the fire that Spock had built, but the image of the flames took his mind back to an unpleasant memory and he flinched hard.

Spock caught it. "Captain?"

Chris fought off the effects of the memory and fought to calm his racing heart, telling himself over and over again that he wasn't there anymore; Talos was behind him.

"I'm okay, its just..." He struggled to get past the memory of his mental torture. "...bad memories."

Spock was by his side in an instant, his piercing gaze going from the fire to his Captain but not understanding the problem. Chris could tell he only wanted to help.

"The fire?" Spock probed gently.

Chris managed to open his eyes and deliberately didn't look at the open flame, unsure if he could contain his reaction to it. He hadn't told many people about his time amongst the Talosians, Number One and Boyce yes, but more out of an official duty especially when it came to medical. He had tried to put it behind him but clearly he still had work to do.

"When we were on Talos, when I was the Keeper's prisoner..." He gulped and licked his lips, struggling with a dry mouth as the panic began to take hold again.

"Every time I refused to do something they punished me. I know it was just an illusion but the pain..." he broke off and just about managed to choke off a wounded sound. "... they burned me alive Spock, and I felt every second of it."

Out loud it sounded much worse than it had in his mind, he'd kept telling himself it wasn't a big deal because he hadn't had the physical consequences of it but he still had that memory.

"I have nightmares about it and then I wake up screaming, wondering why my skin is untouched and why there aren't any burns." Pike's voice was shaking by the end, he hadn't admitted the nightmares to anyone other than Una. It was embarrassing and he wanted to have better control, he hated not being in command of his own mind.

Chris finally looked at Spock's face, unsure what he would see. Whatever Pike thought he would see he had not expected his science officer to be so furious; his eyes were blazing and his jaw was clenched hard. Chris felt the hand against his chest tighten, he had never seen Spock so affected like this. He frowned and replayed his words. What had he said?

"Spock?" All thoughts of the heinous memory vanished, concern overtaking him.

Spock visibly gulped then controlled his reactions, his body and jaw relaxed and he blinked away the rage. His voice was still strained when he spoke though.

"I am sorry that you experienced that. If you ever-" he paused and showed uncertainty about how to continue his sentence. Spock was clearly stuck between a choice. After a moment's silence he stopped holding back and fell into the emotions unchecked. "If you ever feel the need to discuss anything on your mind, I will make myself available to you."

A smile tugged at Pike's lips; a genuine warm smile. In Spock's own way, using his own language he was holding his door wide open and inviting Chris in, just like he had done for Spock. Chris knew how much the offer had cost Spock and he appreciated it and the sentiment, knowing he had another friend to lean on helped lessen the chill running through his bones.

"Thank-you Spock, I appreciate it."

Spock nodded once and quickly averted his eyes. Pike caught his friend controlling a twitch, showing just how uncomfortable he was with this moment and the emotional sentiment involved. Thankfully for Spock, he was saved from any further awkwardness when the Enterprise team burst to the rescue.

* * *

Chris stumbled back under the assault, his hands coming up to automatically grip Una's waist as their tongues battled for dominance. The back of his legs hit the bed and he fell back over ungracefully, taking Una with him so she landed right on top of him, their mouths not once untangling from one another.

The Captain moaned loudly when Una's tongue batted aside his and teased the underside of his mouth, exploring and taking her fill. Her wandering hands found the side of his face and soon she was running both hands through his hair, ruffling it maddeningly. Their teeth clashed together in their frenzy, mouths slanted atop each others with the burning desire of lust.

His hands were still on her hips and he kept her perched on top of his lap, groaning and shifting every time she teasingly ground her hips against his growing erection. Out of nowhere she bit his lip and he growled and glanced up at her shocked, she smirked down at his expression and raised an eyebrow.

It was a clear challenge, her eyes screaming: _Come on Pike, do you worst._

He did. Chris changed the dynamic and flipped them, getting Una beneath him and stripping her of all her clothes. Attacking her breasts, nipples, neck and every other sensitive area he could get a moan to slip past her lips. She was so usually put together but not now, neither of them were now they had decided to give themselves over to this desperate need.

Haste spurred them both on and it wasn't long before they were completely out of their clothes and Una was perched on top of her Captain, sinking down onto him with a cry. Chris planted his hands on her hips and helped lift her up and down until they were both shaking apart inside one another, the clenching of Una's pleasure sending him straight over the edge.

Later, when they lay in bed together sprawled amongst the sheets the air thick with the smell of sex and sweat, Chris glanced from the head laid against his chest to the reason why they had finally taken the plunge. His eyes sought his computer screen with the names of the war's latest victims burning into his mind forever. Comforting one another through their own survivors guilt had soon turned into something else. For one moment they wanted it to not all be about death and suffering; for one moment they wanted to feel alive and simply forget.

There had always been trust between the command team, they had spent years serving together building a strong friendship that always hung on the edge of something else that neither had pushed for, until now. Now all the little looks, the stolen kisses, and the sexual tension had all contributed in breaking through their walls.

They had both given into the desperation of the moment, beaten and downtrodden by the never-ending pains of war and loss. Their resolve breaking each time they met out of hours. Now as he lay next to Number One naked in bed he knew that neither of them were strong enough to stop this any longer, the connection was too strong. They were like two magnets being pulled closer and closer together and now they were connected nothing was going to break them apart.

* * *

"Any sign of their life signs?" The Captain's voice sounded clipped and strained even to his own ears.

There was a deadly silence across the bridge of the Enterprise, except for Lieutenant Amin's tapping. She was furiously swiping at screens and searching for any sign of their missing people.

Pike waited on the edge of his seat, a deep nauseous feeling already settling in his gut. He watched the view-screen with as much detachment as he could muster. They had caused the damage there, the Enterprise had levelled the whole lab to stop the virus from escaping into the atmosphere. Only intense heat of over 1000 degrees destroyed the deadly toxin that had been seconds away from escaping into the world. It would have killed millions, he had no choice.

Repeating that mantra didn't keep the guilt at bay. He had ordered the Enterprise to fire torpedoes at the building. _He_ had effectively signed Number One and Spock's death warrants.

Chris could still hear their arguments in his head, telling him there was no time to wait for them to get out of range, and that the Enterprise had to fire now. Pike had given them every second he could spare and carried out his duty without hesitation, making the hard choice as was his burden.

He had to focus on optimism. There was still a chance, a small chance that they had made it out in time…

"Sir, we have an incoming transmission from the away team." Nicola shouted exuberantly. "They've found them alive."

After they had been transferred back on the ship and put back together again by the medical staff, Una made her way to Chris' room. He stood when she entered, not knowing what to say or do. She smiled softly, her face covered in cuts and bruises but in one piece.

As one they moved towards one another, Una flung her arms around his neck and he buried his head in her shoulder. Chris revelled in the warmth of the embrace, there had been a time when he thought this would never be possible again. How glad was he that he had been wrong. Una had survived against all odds, she was here in his arms _alive._ He sniffled and pulled back a little, reaching up and moving a stray hair out of her eyes. She leaned into his touch.

"I'm sorry." He breathed eventually, glancing at all the cuts peppering her skin and seeing the tension in her body from her injuries.

"Don't you dare apologise." She growled, tapping his chest sternly. "You did the right thing and you will do it again."

They laid their foreheads against one another and revelled in their good luck, happy for small miracles and thankful to both be alive in one piece.

"Duty first." They both muttered into the space between them. It was the promise they had made to each other and Starfleet, and one they would continue to keep until their last breath.

* * *

Chris flashed through countless memories from his time aboard the Enterprise; the diplomatic missions, the close scrapes and near-death experiences, the evenings spent with Boyce, Spock, Una. He had a family here, a home. The war ended, things were good, things were happy. Sadly that didn't last.

* * *

"Then I owe you a simile Commander?"

"Burnham, Michael Burnham."

Chris smiled charmingly when all of the pieces clicked into place. Here was Spock's infamous sister; the one person from he had mentioned fleetingly but with great admiration. "He said you were smart."

...

"It's alright Ensign. Everybody grab a seat. Go ahead, now I want you all to give that a read."

Chris brushed off the nervousness from having his entire record up on screen for everyone to see, in fact he ran with the blunder, figuring that Ensign Tilly had even done him a favour. He had wanted to be open and honest with this new crew after their last Captain, this was a good start for that.

"I'm Captain Christopher Pike and up there are my commendations, my diagnosis of childhood asthma, ah that big red F, that was my failing grade in Astrophysics at the academy."

…

"Just relax and let me do my-"

The pod exploded into thousands of pieces, shrapnel flying out into space as the flames engulfed the wrecked pod and the science officer's body for good.

"Connoly!" Chris yelled, not willing to believe that he'd lost a crew member already, and for such an avoidable reason. If he only he had listened to him…

Things soon went from bad to worst. First he was hit with the death of a crew member, next his shuttle was pierced with flaming wreckage, then his thruster pack refused to fire up and his helmet would not engage so ejection was not an option. It wasn't long before he was in total free-fall hurtling through space.

"I can catch him."

Out of all the bat-shit crazy plans he had heard this took the bloody biscuit. He was not about to get Spock's sister killed on the first day of knowing her.

"Forget it Burnham I've already lost one officer today." He yelled back.

"I'm comfortable with the risk, Sir."

Jesus, she was as stubborn as her brother and clearly as creative with the mad plans. That didn't change the fact that Chris didn't want anyone dying for him, not when there was a mission to complete.

"And I'm not. You screw this up we're both dead. Stay on mission, that's an order!"

It turned out Michael also argued against his orders, another thing she shared with her brother and she was as lucky as him too. Chris had never expected Burnham to be able to catch him, not at the speeds they were going but lo and behold soon after he was ejected he felt a weight slam into his side and then they were spinning uncontrollably.

Pike caught sight of her face in between the somersaults and fought against the effects of the G's they were pulling, when he looked through her visor he saw that Michael Burnham was grinning. He knew then that they were going to get along like a house on fire, who the hell grinned when they were hurtling through space uncontrollably playing catch-the-Captain?

Later, when the adrenaline had worn off and everyone was safe and sound back on the ship, Chris retreated to his ready room just to have a moment alone to recoup. After Burnham had caught him they had found the survivors on the asteroid; the remaining crew of the USS Hiawatha. How anyone had stayed alive down there, how Reno had kept those people alive was incredible.

Pike felt his legs grow shaky and he wished the room had a chair, anything to take away the drumming in his mind, the trembling of his muscles and the various unpleasant symptoms that came from coming down from the amount of adrenaline that flooded one's system after almost dying.

He felt out of his depth here; he had already lost an officer in such a short space of time, this new crew didn't trust him completely. He could see it in their eyes when he walked along the corridors, and on the bridge. He couldn't exactly blame them all after what they been through with Lorca but he had to admit the glances stung, he had never seen a crew so damaged and beat up before. They were a close family and he was going to have to earn their trust to truly belong here.

As it stood Chris couldn't help but feel wary around Discovery, and around the general aura in the crew. He was nervous about the mission Command had assigned to him, and he knew the importance of it and what pressure was being loaded onto his and Discovery's shoulders. He felt the weight begin to take strain; he had no Enterprise, no Number One, no Spock. It was just him and this new life.

Glancing around the cold space around him he realised that was what was so wrong with Discovery, so much of it felt cold and detached like Lorca's militaristic ways were still choking the life out of the ship. Chris missed the warmth of the Enterprise, his crew. He missed feeling safe and at home.

_"Christopher, to survive out there in the real world you need to get up and carry on, no matter what's knocked you down."_ He remembered his fathers words, and picked himself up. He plastered a smile on his face, made peace with this new path and let go of some of his tension just in time for Michael Burnham to walk through the door.

* * *

"Burnham-" Pike ground out before being cut off when Michael pulled him forward and his leg buckled for the umpteenth time.

"Keep moving." She hissed at him, tightening her grip and pulling him into a shell of a building when footsteps approached.

"Michael you need-" He started again only to have her cut him off when she pulled him down behind a low wall and planted a hand over his mouth, cutting off his cry of pain from the sudden movement and any protests.

"Someone's coming." She hissed urgently, her eyes darting over the wall to track the approaching targets.

Pike leant his head back against the cool wall and focussed on his breathing, he tried to block out the throbbing searing pain in his leg. He could still feel the blood dripping down the limb and it cracked and pulled every time he had to shift position.

He had been shot by an energy weapon at high power, his skin was completely scorched and burned, the wound was gruesome and had been a hinderance ever since. It made him a liability and it was putting Michael in danger.

Eventually the rebels passed; they clearly hadn't spotted their hiding place. Michael suddenly remembered she had her hand over his mouth. She pulled it away quickly and muttered an apology, standing and already leaning down to take his weight.

"Michael stop." He ordered firmly, pulling her back down. Michael's head flinched back in response and her eyes began to blink rapidly. "You need to leave me here, I'm only slowing you down."

Michael's expression morphed from confusion to thunderous anger as she shook her head wildly. "Absolutely not."

Chris sighed heavily whilst his whole body sagged back against the wall. Why did he always end up with the stubborn ones? "We aren't both going to make it out of here on foot, not with my leg like this." He scowled at the wound, wincing when he saw the extent of it.

Michael too looked at his leg and grimaced. "I'm not leaving you Captain."

"If I make it an ord-"

"Don't you dare." Michael interrupted viscerally, her eyes blazing and muscles trembling. "Don't you dare order me to do that." She visibly took a breath and calmed herself down. "We don't leave each other behind. Remember?"

Chris huffed wearily; Michael was now parroting his own words back at him. Not only were they his words but they were right; he knew that and she knew that. If their positions were reversed he would never leave an officer behind so how could he order to do what he could not?

He closed his eyes and relented to Michael's stubbornness. "Okay." He replied eventually, gritting his teeth when Michael hauled him up from the floor.

Michael didn't push them on before making a promise, looking him right in the eye. "We're going to make it out of this, together."

As Chris looked into her eyes he saw the resolve and determination there; she looked just like Spock in that moment, and he believed in her just like he did Spock. Michael Burnham was getting them out of this.


	7. Chapter 7

"We know who you are Captain Pike and we know why you have come here."

Chris would be lying if he said he didn't jump when two Klingon's appeared at his side each wielding a huge bat'leth each, seemingly out of nowhere. "The only power that exists here is that of which we protect."

The reason he was down on this forgotten planet alone and unarmed was because the fate of the universe was at stake. "The time crystals."

The Klingon regarded him before describing who had come to Boreth before him; that other visitors had also sought a time crystal but none had left with one.

"They enter with conviction always, they leave broken always."

Despite the warning, Pike did not intend to fail, not when the stakes were this high. The Klingon continued to try and dissuade him. "Even if a crystal is revealed to you, even if it provides you with the answers you seek, you are not strong enough to accept them."

Chris was half convinced that this was all a smoke screen, he liked to think he could handle anything so all he could think in that moment was - bring it on. "I'm not leaving here without that crystal."

**...**

"A warning Captain. The present is a veil between anticipation and horror. Lift the veil and madness may follow."

Even as Chris was standing beside a time crystal, ready to face the so called horror, Tenavik was still trying to get him to walk away. Pike knew these Klingons were the keepers and perhaps this was their purpose, scare people like him away before they had the chance to take their crystal.

Pike's lips quirked upwards as he reached out towards the crystal, amused by the dramatics. He had seen true horrors in his life, what could be worse than Talos?

As soon as he touched the crystal the monastery fell away to be replaced by a different scene all together. Chris was jolted out of his thoughts by an explosion and he jumped to his feet, spinning to face the threat automatically.

"Alert radiation leak detected."

His eyes sought the crack the computer was mentioning and he started to panic as he saw that the structure was about to blow. A cadet was still at the controls fighting valiantly to control the leak but it was already too late.

"Go, get out of here!" He cried out to all the remaining cadets, needing to get them all on the other side of the blast doors before the place came down around them.

"4 seconds to lock down."

There wasn't enough time and the cadet was still at the controls, ignoring the growing crack around her.

"Leave it cadet, I said get out of here!" He cried as the computer counted down to 3.

The containment screen cracked and exploded outward, sending sparks flying and chunks of molten metal to land all over the site. Chris held up his arm to shield his face from the worst of the blast and distantly heard the cadet cry out and land heavily by his feet.

"Radiation reaching critical levels."

He grabbed a hold of her and began hauling the two of them towards the door, already in his mind knowing that it had to be too late, the computer was about to lock them out any second. But he couldn't give up, not when another was depending on him.

The whole room exploded and he went flying, losing his grip on the unconscious cadet and careering towards the now locked down door uncontrollably. His head slammed into the blast door nastily and he almost passed out, the only think keeping him conscious was the pain.

His face felt like it was burning, like it was melting and dripping which was impossible but that's the only way he could describe it. It was agonising and only increasing by the second, it felt worse than when the Talosians had burned him alive all those years ago. Some distant part of his mind realised it must be the radiation.

Chris distantly heard his name being called out and he wearily dragged himself to his knees, he managed to lift his head and see the cadets through the blast door, crying and beating at the glass.

At least they're safe. He thought before the true agony hit. He screamed and yelled as the radiation seared through his skin, falling back to the floor and writhing under the never-ending assault, wishing for an end.

**…**

Out of no-where the scene changed, he was stood in a dark corridor and the pain was gone. He ran a hand down his face and through his hair, not believing that the radiation burns were gone. His skin still felt numb from the effects, just like it had been an illusion.

He heard a mechanical wheezing sound from along the hall and turned to it, his legs feeling heavy and unwieldy as he made his way towards the apparition.

The farther he walked the more he could make out that at the end of the corridor was a man in a full body wheelchair, he was horribly disfigured, his face burned away. It almost looked like it had melted off.

The truth hit him in his chest, leaving him breathless and panicked. Chris dropped to his knees and reached out to touch the chair, to make sure that this wasn't just an illusion that this was real. He stared into the man's face and saw only pain, agony and horror. He saw his future.

**…**

Chris screamed and fell away from the time crystal, backing away from the vision as quickly as his legs would carry him. He stopped when he couldn't back away any further and held a hand over his mouth, the haunted scream of his future self still hot in his mind. He couldn't shake the image, the sound, the pain.

"You take the crystal, your fate will be sealed forever." He tried to bring his breathing under control and gripped the delta shield for strength. He tried to use the familiar symbol to ground him in the present moment now his world had been shaken, now it had been changed forever. "There will be no escaping it."

Chris heard the words and understood the choice. Take the crystal that they all needed and accept his future, or simply walk away and live a different life, at the expense of all sentiment life.

"You are a starfleet Captain." He reminded himself and drew on the strength of the symbol on his chest, just like that fateful day in the academy when his mother had passed away, muttering the oath in his mind and the promise he had made to her. Remembering what she had taught him and what was right.

"You believe in service, sacrifice, compassion, and love."

It wasn't a choice at all. Even if it was to save one life, his answer would still be the same. He got to his feet suddenly, staring up at Tenavik with a strength he hadn't known he still possessed.

"I'm not going to abandon the things that make me who I am because of a future… that contains an ending I… I hadn't foreseen for myself." His strength and resolve grew with each moment, knowing this was the right thing, the only thing he could do.

"No." He stated more firmly, saying that to stamp out the last doubts in his mind as well as from Tenavik. "Give it to me."

When the time keeper handed over the crystal Chris felt the universe shift around him, he felt the lines be drawn and the future set itself in stone. He saw flashes of the explosion, of the chair, of his future and he accepted it.

* * *

He tumbled through further memories; flashes of the battle against control, of thousands of ships flying into fire and torpedos colliding and exploding like a firework display. The Enterprise took a pounding, Discovery took a pounding and they all nearly lost everything until Kat closed the blast doors behind her, blocking Chris off and saving the Enterprise from destruction.

Chris watched the blue flames engulf the Admiral, only looking away when the brightness of the fire got too much. When he looked back Kat was gone, all that stood in her place was empty space and the still-raging battle. The doors closed and he forced his weary body back onto the bridge, to finish the mission.

He stood side by side with Spock and watched Discovery fly into the wormhole, feeling like a part of him was being ripped out and lost for good with the crew that had wormed their way into his heart.

"Goodbye my friends." His voice cracked and he stamped down on it, he couldn't break here not in front of both his crews. "My family."

The aftermath of the battle was in a word; hell. So many deaths, so many injuries. Every able hand was busy for hours afterwards, making the ship stable and lending a hand in medical until each and every crew member was stable.

Chris wiped the blood off his hands and headed out of sickbay, exhausted and spent. He was emotionally defeated, physically only just standing but worst of all he couldn't let himself break down now. Not in front of the crew.

He hurried to his quarters and locked himself in, curled up in a heap on the floor and cried his eyes out, letting out all the emotions he had bottled up for months. He cried for Kat and for Leyland the friends he had lost for good, he cried for Discovery and the family he would never see again, he cried for all the countless crew members who had died under his command and finally he cried for himself, for the sacrifices he had made and would continue to make for years to come.

In the days after the battle things did become easier, funerals were held and the injured crew members got back on their feet, the pressure relented and they finally made it back to space dock. Chris knew the weeks to come were not going to be easy, Command wanted to know the truth about Discovery and control. They ended up telling them what they needed to know, unwilling to let such a tragedy happen again, unwilling to allow Discovery's sacrifice to be in vain.

Spock was distant and quiet for weeks as he worked through the loss of his sister. He continued his leave on Vulcan for some time as the ship was re-fitted. Chris was beginning to worry about him, especially as the sky remained devoid of red signals.

Spock eventually came back aboard the ship, after 50 days had passed he was growing restless and had convinced himself that the signal would never come. Chris chatted to him each night, tried to take his mind off of the signal and when that failed kept reminding Spock that they were dealing with time travel.

Spock knew that time was relative of course but the longer time went on the more he doubted it. After a visit from his mother Spock seemed to become more steady and calm, he mentioned the signal less and started hanging out with Pike without being pestered into it, just like before.

Eventually the Enterprise was space-worthy again, the crew was restless to get back out there after such an extended stay away from the exploration of deep-space. Command had joked that perhaps Chris could take better care of the ship this time, Chris knew they were only half-joking. Breaking a ship twice so catastrophically was not okay, he only got away with it because of the whole saving all sentiment life thing.

The Captain couldn't wait to get away from the bureaucracy of Starfleet Command. On their journey Number One detected a signal and Chris beamed when he saw the red image appear on screen. Spock was going to be so pleased, well as pleased as he could be for Spock.

Chris knew how much Michael's journey into the future had weighed on him, knowing she and the Discovery had gotten there safely would help him find peace. It was definitely a weight off of his own mind. He had started to have his doubts despite his chats with Spock, but not anymore; Discovery had made it.

"Mr Spock to the bridge."

* * *

Chris gasped and woke with a start, he could feel his heart beating madly in his chest, threatening to burst out any second. He breathed in heavily and greedily as his emotions and racing heart returned to normal, even being pulled from the experience felt just like being snapped out of a mind meld.

He pulled against the restraints accidentally which helped ground him in the present, now he wasn't hurtling through his memories he could remember that this was the moment he currently lived in. Chris opened his eyes and blearily took in the occupants.

He soon noticed the horrified twinned expressions of Tyler and Una, they were both staring at him with their mouths parted and their faces frozen and twisted. Pike's heart sank, he had honestly thought he was clear...

"No, no, no…" He groaned and let his head hang against his chest tiredly. "Don't tell me I'm a host to an alien parasite."

Tyler blinked and seemed to snap back into reality. He walked over and began taking the equipment off of Pike's head, his eyes watching him not with fear, but _pity?_

"No you're clear." He grunted.

Pike frowned. "Then what's with the look?" He directed the question at Tyler and Una who was still staring at him wide-eyed. "Why are you looking at me like I've grown another head?"

Una gulped and her eyes flicked to the screen that had been hooked up to the equipment, Tyler was still watching him carefully, his mind ticking away behind his eyes. Pike followed his first officer's gaze and came to a startling conclusion. "You could see my memories?"

"Some." Tyler admitted. "Mostly just flashes though."

Pike gulped, what had they seen that could make them react like this?

"What the hell was that?" Una finally managed to find words, almost shouting and falling into a full on outburst.

Chris was lost, he didn't know what they had seen. "What was what?"

Una bristled and her expression frosted over. Tyler interrupted before she lost it. "Boreth."

The Section 31 agent met Pike's stare with a piercing gaze, seeing something that Una couldn't; putting together pieces of a puzzle he hadn't seen in years.

_Oh damn._ Out of all his memories… And of course Tyler would know exactly what that was, and now understand what he had done. He'd been in his ready room that day, he had known that Pike had sacrificed something. Until this day he had just never known what.

"What's Boreth?" Una interrupted impatiently, watching the two men stare at one another unnervingly.

Chris stayed silent, not knowing how to even start. Ash finally drew his gaze away and began moving the equipment over to Una, explaining as he went. "The time crystal we needed to power the suit against control, that came from Boreth."

Pike focussed on his breathing and not the memories Tyler's story brought on. He didn't want this coming up again, he had accepted this fate and had moved on. He wasn't supposed to talk about it.

"The time keepers at Boreth guard the crystals, they say that a crystal can only be taken after a great sacrifice." Tyler stopped the tale and glanced over at the Captain, something akin to admiration in his eyes. "Until today I didn't know what that sacrifice was."

Una was still confused and she let it be known. "What sacrifice, I don't understand?"

Chris stayed silent which pissed her off even more. "Chris talk to me." She implored.

"I'm not supposed to." He snapped back before sighing and apologising. "Sorry Una it's just…"

Una's anger faded away piece by piece as the flashes fell into place along with what Tyler had told her. She didn't need Chris to tell her what had happened, she worked it out for herself. "That was your future, it showed you your future and you accepted that fate by taking the crystal."

Chris nodded mutely, wanting to stay calm even as the screams of his future self echoed round his mind, the pain of his flesh melting away feeling all too real. If he had his hands free he would be running his hand up his face to ensure his flesh was still there.

"Why?" Her voice and composure cracked as she let her despair creep in.

Chris snapped up at that, noticing that Tyler was interested in the answer too. "Why?" He echoed back. "Because it needed to be done."

Una snorted and shook her head. "It's that simple to you?"

Chris straightened in his chair, remembering the promise he had made to himself. "Yes it's that simple. If I see anyone in need of aid, anyone that I can help I won't hesitate to save lives, regardless of the cost to my own life. I don't care what vision I have or haven't seen, that fact will never change."

He watched her face soften as she understood where he was going with this. "That future may happen in a week, it may happen in a year or it may never happen. Time is fickle and even though it is supposedly set in stone that doesn't mean I'm invincible. I could die crossing the street Una."

He did believe that Tenavik was telling him the truth and he fully expected that future to come to pass, but betting on it could get others hurt. "I'm not going to live my life looking over my shoulder or counting down the minutes to a possible future. And you're damn right if that future does happen I will be running straight into that training exercise to save as many lives as I can."

_Service, sacrifice, compassion, love._

"You think I made a choice? There was no choice. Don't tell me either of you would do any different if you were in a situation like that? We all made our choices, we all chose Starfleet and we all knew the possibility of death or injury when we signed up."

He passed the ball into their court, he could tell by both of their faces that they would do just as he would. They were Starfleet officers and they would willingly give their lives for each other, it was who they all were.

"I'm sorry." Was all Una could manage, whether she was apologising for her outburst or for what Chris had in store for his future was unclear. Tyler echoed her thoughts.

Chris smiled. "It's okay. I've accepted it." Funnily enough he had, he had been living his life out of its shadow and would continue to do so.

Tyler finished setting up the program on the computer, which brought Chris back to the present problem. "So you're saying I'm clear?"

Ash glanced at him. "Yeah, no discrepancies in your memories."

Chris breathed a sigh of relief and indicated to the restraints. "Good so now you can untie me."

Tyler frowned and then glanced from him to Una. Pike dropped the levity of his tone and made it clear this was not a suggestion. "Listen Tyler, up until now you've been following your orders and have had precedent for your actions. But now I've passed your test you need to untie me, if you don't I'll send you to the brig for false imprisonment." He was deadly serious and Ash clocked it, a bit of fear returning to his expression.

Ash took a step towards him but still looked a little hesitant. "I need your word that you won't stop me from scanning Number One, you know I need to, there's still someone aboard this ship who has been infected."

Pike understood the hesitancy but he needed Tyler to respect his authority, he needed him to trust him just as he had placed his trust in Ash. "No conditions. Untie me now." At his continued reluctance he pushed further. "I trusted you Tyler now it's your turn, show me 31 has changed. Show me it follows its own rules."

That did it. Tyler sighed but took out his knife all the same, and he quickly and efficiently sliced through the Captain's restraints one by one. Chris was soon free and he shook off the zip ties and removed the gag from around his head.

When Tyler had helped him get free of the bedding he jumped up and shook some circulation back into his tired limbs. It was a relief to be free and he glanced over at Una guiltily. He was well aware that Tyler was watching him warily so he put him out of his misery.

"Sorry Una, but we're gonna need to scan your memories too."

Ash looked taken aback, did he really expect him to put Una above the security of the whole universe and the safety of his crew? And if she had been taken over then this was the safest thing for her, as Tyler's previous stories had shown. Una didn't look surprised, she just smiled and indicated for Tyler to carry on hooking her up to the equipment.

"No staring at the bedroom memories boys."


	8. Chapter 8

"Well, you're clear too." Ash appraised Una, his lips almost pressing together in a pout.

He was clearly disappointed by the news or at least troubled, but he began packing away the equipment all the same. Tyler handed Chris his knife who promptly used it to cut Una free. She jumped up and shook the stiffness out of her limbs, breathing a sigh of relief at being found clear.

"Thanks." She whispered, touching Chris' arm and sending a tingle of warmth through his body.

Chris allowed a giddy smile to break out now he knew she was clear. "No problem." He hadn't been able to shake the image of her being sliced open, or with an alien attached to her neck. It wasn't a pleasant thought to say the least.

Number One released her hold on his arm and her cool exterior returned, her professional walls shot up in no time as her mind snapped back to the larger problem at hand. "What's wrong with you Tyler? You've got a face like a smacked ass."

Pike snickered and hid his smirk behind his hand. If the image Una's words conjured up wasn't funny enough, Tyler's expression definitely was. The esteemed leader of Section 31 blushed furiously and averted his eyes from the pair of them, walking over to the terminal and shutting down the mind-scanning program.

"Well, forgive me for worrying about the fate of the entire universe." He muttered back bitterly.

Una and Chris shared a knowing look, with a nod their identical twin smiles straightened and the levity drained out of the atmosphere. He had deserved a little ribbing and after what he'd put Pike and Una's hearts through, they knew he was doing his job but still it had not been a pleasant evening. There was a time and place for everything though and right now Tyler didn't need more on his plate.

Chris pulled up a chair on one side of Tyler and Una the other, they all studied the information that had brought Ash here in the first place: the access of sensitive information using Captain Pike's credentials.

"The system clearly shows that the information was accessed from the Enterprise, it's just a matter of tracking down the source." Tyler muttered as he tried another program to source the data that had been cleverly diverted.

Una hummed then pushed Tyler's hands out of the way of the keyboard. "May I?" She smiled sweetly as more of an afterthought.

Ash's brow rose and his lip curled upwards, faintly amused. Knowing the choice was already made for him he leaned back in the chair. "By all means."

Pike snorted again, why hadn't he put these two in a room together before now? He forgot that outsiders weren't used to Una's prickly nature. She was on top form tonight, probably some sort of revenge after having their evening interrupted. Una's fingers flew over the terminal and it wasn't long before a result pinged on screen. Pike knew Number One was good with computers, that she knew the Enterprise systems inside and out but that was quick even for her.

"Somebody tried very hard to hide it but the information was accessed from one of the research terminals on the bridge during Alpha shift." Una muttered suspiciously, she had already brought up a list of names of officers that were on shift that day and on the bridge.

Tyler glanced between the two officers. "The ball's in your court now guys. I don't know anyone else on this ship. Has anyone on that list been acting suspiciously in the last few weeks? Anyone who fits the criteria?"

Chris scanned the list of names and his heart skipped a beat when all the pieces slotted into place. "Yeoman Colt…" He muttered in disbelief. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought about it earlier.

Una nodded vigourously. "With her being your Yeoman she definitely fits the criteria, and she's been acting oddly over the past week. I was going to talk to her about it."

"It's a good job you didn't." Ash muttered darkly. "You would have probably ended up with a worm in your head."

Chris felt his skin go cold and the room fell away. He remembered the conversation on the bridge with perfect clarity, he remembered how odd he had found his Yeoman's behaviour, how she had pressed on meeting with him alone, out of hours and had been almost angry when he turned her down. Her intentions were now clear as day to him, she had wanted to implant him with a parasite.

"She wanted to meet with me… tonight... alone…" He still felt a little shell-shocked and nauseous, just the thought of having one of those things inside him was enough to put him off food for a week.

His words sunk in and Una looked as horrified as he did. "What the hell for?"

Chris realised that having another woman ask to spend time alone with him would piss her off for another reason. He shook off the problem as something he would have to deal with another time, right now he was concerned about the alien parasite running loose on his ship.

"She mentioned something about going over reports and she wanted to do it away from the crew. At the time I thought it was odd but I brushed it off to another night, I said I had plans." He met Una's eyes then and tried to hide the blanked heat the thought provoked of the plans they had had in mind.

"Anyway." Chris coughed awkwardly. "She didn't react well to the diversion, I even remember thinking that she looked really ticked off. I guess it's because she wanted to infect me with an alien worm…"

Tyler clapped him on the shoulder, his mood improved now they had a target in mind. "I bet you're glad you blew her off."

Pike let out a nervous chuckle; glad didn't even begin to cover it. He got to his feet and began to pace in the small space, well aware that the ship was in danger the longer Colt walked around unchecked. "How do we handle this now then?"

Ash's cheshire grin indicated he'd had a light-bulb moment and his sudden pleased expression put Chris on edge. "Invite her here."

"What?" Chris and Una's responses were both in sync, and equally as shocked and outraged by the suggestion as each other.

Tyler held his hands up placatingly. "Wait a second and hear me out." Chris had a short fuse for Tyler's crazy plans and he did not like the way he was looking at him, like he was the bait in a trap. "She doesn't expect anything right now. If you call her up and say your plans fell through she'll head over here to carry out her original plan."

"You want me to actually invite an alien host into my quarters knowing full well she wants to…" Chris gestured to his head nervously. "…infect me with an alien worm which will take over my mind and body."

Chris didn't think he was being melodramatic or even over-reacting, Number One looked just as concerned and shocked by the plan as he did so that was something; he wasn't going mad. Tyler on the other hand looked like this was the best day since Christmas.

"Yep." He replied jovially, not quite picking up on Pike and Number One's duel disbelief. After noticing their stunned silence he continued. "Look, think about it. We've never been able to determine for sure how the worms are passed between hosts. We could gain valuable intelligence from this, Yeoman Colt wouldn't be a danger to this ship any longer and no-one would be any the wiser."

Chris sighed and ran a hand over his face wearily. "You want to use me as bait." He surmised.

Tyler noticed his levity wasn't shared around the room, he sobered. "Believe it or not this is probably the safest way to capture Colt, she won't see this coming." He glanced to Number One. "Besides we'll both be hidden in the room with phasers, we'll have your back."

Pike wasn't sure if he would have agreed if it were just Tyler asking him to place his life in his hands, not after the evening he had just had. But he trusted Number One with his life and without hesitation. He glanced over at her and saw the steely resolve there, her body straightening and her hand brushing her phaser. She nodded once indicating she would have his back if he wanted to go ahead with this madness. Perhaps Ash was right. This plan definitely got the Enterprise out of danger and would hopefully give Section 31 more information about the larger threat. If he had to sacrifice a few minutes of safety to get that then he would.

Chris turned to Tyler and shot him a wry look. "Alright I'll do it, but if this goes pear-shaped you will never hear the end of this." He fully intended to follow through on the threat, he would make Tyler's life a misery if this put his ship or crew in danger.

Tyler smirked right back, a familiar mischievous twinkle in his eye, seeing a threat hidden beneath the friendly tone. "Noted, Captain."

* * *

"You need to relax Captain." Ash's voice whispered out from the shadows of the bedroom.

Chris glared in the direction of where he knew Tyler and Number One were hiding. "That's easy for you to say Tyler." He spat. "You're not the bait in this crazy-"

His hushed rant was cut off when his doorbell chimed. Chris swallowed down the rest of the words and his gaze snapped to the doorway. He had invited Yeoman Colt over just as planned and she had jumped at the chance. The Captain glanced in the darkness one more just to make sure Number One and Tyler were well hidden. Then he took a deep breath, downed the rest of his whiskey, pulled himself together and called out to the computer to let his visitor in.

The door swished open just as Chris remembered to plaster a smile on his face. Yeoman Colt peered into the room, looking a little hesitant until she noticed him.

"Please come in Yeoman." Chris invited the young women in with open arms, noticing that she had in fact brought a data pad along as was her cover.

He started to wonder how long she would wait until she did whatever she was going to do with the space worms, he shook the thoughts away as unhelpful and indicated to the drinks cart instead. "Can I get you a drink?"

When he looked back he noticed that Colt was busy sweeping the room. Pike's heart sped up when she peered into the darkened bedroom but thankfully her wandering gaze soon moved on. She snapped back to him, a strange smile in place. "No thank you Captain, I think it would be best to get down to business."

Why did those words and that tone put him on edge? Maybe it was the way she was smiling at him, like he was the prey and her the predator. He felt very uneasy all of a sudden and wanted to keep as much distance between them as he could manage without being suspicious.

"Okay sure." He replied easily, fake smile in place. "Shall we take this to the sofa?"

"Just here's fine."

Even though Pike was expecting her to do something her actions still had him stumbling back; he was not prepared for the suddenness or the thing in her hand that had seemed to appear out of nowhere. Yeoman Colt stepped forward into his space and went to grab his arm, her other coming round gripping a wriggling huge worm.

Pike yelped out in shock, his eyes transfixed on the thing that was closer to his face than he wanted. He just about managed to side step her advances but in his haste ended up tripping over his own feet. Pike went down hard, landing on his back and completely defenceless.

"Guys!" He called out desperately at the same time as two stun blasts slammed into the Colt, the snarl on her face dropped and her expression slackened.

She dropped to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut, landing heavily on the floor. Chris's heart shot into his mouth as the worm leapt out of Colts' hand and towards him. Chris back-pedalled on his hands as fast as he could manage, panic taking over as his vision was filled with the horrible image of the alien worm making it's way into his mouth and onto his spine.

The thing moved faster than he could react so it was soon upon him. Pike's back hit a wall and he realised he had nowhere left to go. His limbs froze as true fear shot straight through him, freezing over everything in its path, it was like all the blood in his body had been replaced by icy water.

The worm reared up ready to strike which was when a blast shot straight at it, blasting it into the air before it landed with a sickening thud, immobile and lifeless. Chris tore his eyes away from the worm that had almost got him to see Una standing with her gun out, pointing down at the worm with a grim expression on her face. Her eyes met his and he recognised concern and anxiety, although it was swiftly eradicated just like the threat. Chris gulped and pulled himself together, coming down from the high of the adrenaline rush, he felt like he'd just run a mile.

"Thanks." He managed eventually.

Number One smiled genuinely at that and she held out her hand to help him up from the floor. "Any time, Captain."

Chris managed a nervous laugh in return and took her hand, he allowed himself to be lifted from the floor and he held onto her hand tightly for a few moments longer than necessary. He really didn't know why he had been so worried, Una had always had his back and she always would. The command team broke apart when they noticed Tyler's smirk.

Chris brushed himself down and glanced at the chaotic scene distastefully. He had been caught up in enough drama for a lifetime in the space of one evening. "Your plans have much to be desired Mr Tyler, anyone would think you actually wanted to kill me."

Ash barked a laugh. "My plans have gone off without a hitch."

Pike's eyes widened at that and his mouth hung open against his will at the blatant exaggeration. "Without a hitch?" He squeaked, pointing to the phaser burn in his floor and the still-smoking corpse of the alien worm.

Tyler shrugged and plastered on a face of boyish innocence. "Well more or less." He finally admitted.

"If you two are finished squabbling like an old married couple I believe we have work to do." Una interrupted, hands on hips and standing over the unconscious body of Yeoman Colt.

The two men sobered, smirks threatening to pull at their lips over the stern dressing down from Number One. "Yes ma'am." They both replied with a little salute before making their way over to help.

* * *

Chris turned to the sound of a transporter beam and saw a golden glow fill his quarters, he reacted to the possible threat and contemplated how long it would take to get to a comm panel. Soon enough that became unnecessary when he recognised Tyler's features appearing from the light, he let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and moved his hand away from the phaser attached to his hip. Ever since the incident with Yeoman Colt and the space worm, Chris felt the need to keep the phaser close by until he got the all clear from Section 31.

Ash stepped out of the beam and appraised the Captain with a nod, he soon noticed Number One wasn't in the room any longer. "Una?"

"She's covering up Yeoman Colt's disappearance. We've brought you 24 hours." Pike replied, he studied Tyler's reaction and asked the burning question. "How is she?"

The Section 31 agent had taken her and the dead alien corpse over to his hidden ship, to ensure that Colt was indeed carrying a parasite and if so they would perform the extraction procedure.

"She's resting. The operation was a complete success and Yeoman Colt is no longer hosting an alien parasite."

Chris raked a hand through his hair and sighed with relief. "That's good news." He admitted then managed a half smile. "Maybe this nightmare is almost over."

Tyler scoffed. "For you maybe." His shoulders sagged considerably and gaze going considering

Chris pitied him, he did not want the responsibility that came with Tyler's job. "What's next?"

Ash snapped back to the present, the far away look in his eye vanishing to be replaced by the steely look of someone of his position. "We're going to let Yeoman Colt rest for some time, then when she wakes up we've got a _big_ debrief to have."

Well that was an understatement. Chris already felt sorry for his officer but it was the only way to let her back aboard Enterprise, embedding her back aboard the ship as normal to avoid suspicion from potential imposters. It was a dangerous game Section 31 were playing but a necessary one.

"Then you'll beam her back aboard?" Chris wanted the details ironed out and he still felt a little uneasy not knowing exactly where Tyler's ship was but he knew it had to be close, and cloaked.

"Yeah, shouldn't be any longer than 24 hours." Tyler nodded. "And you and Number One know how to continue?"

Ash was talking about the protocols set in place by 31. He and Una were in a rather unique position as they had never been infected in the first place, so instead of continuing to act abnormally to keep up outside appearances all they had to worry about was keeping an eye out for suspected imposters. If they became aware of any unusual behaviour or suspected anything they were to contact 31 straight away.

"Yeah, we got it." Chris replied rolling his eyes, Ash had explained it twice already and he was still nervous to leave them to it.

Ash smirked then went to touch his badge. "Well in that case I better leave you to it."

"Oh, Tyler." Chris began, stopping Ash from beaming back over to his ship. "If I find you on my ship again uninvited I'm going to shoot you." He allowed a playful smile to pull at his lips, he was only half joking after all. "Fair warning."

Ash chuckled and his eyes gleamed, seeming to accept the challenge. "I guess I'll just have to shoot you first then." He winked then waved goodbye. "Captain." He nodded at him before disappearing in a shining light as he transported back to his ship.

Chris shook his head and scoffed. "Cocky little shit."

* * *

"Una…" He groaned tiredly, trying desperately to ignore the little kisses she was peppering all over his neck and how incredibly good it felt. "…I'm exhausted."

He didn't even sound convincing to his own ears. All he had wanted after this _ridiculously_ long evening was to curl up in bed with Number One, and put on a movie or something equally mundane and stress-free. He had no energy left to do anything else, but Una was seriously testing that conviction.

Una nudged his chin playfully and hovered just above his lips, her hair hanging down to tickle his face with every breath. "Oh come on Pike…" She nipped at his lips, a tease here a little tug there earning a groan in reward. "…We're supposed to be having a date night."

Chris was really struggling to hold back the moans her actions were tearing from his throat. They were both still fully clothed in their slacks they wore to bed, he honestly didn't know when his first officer had decided she wanted to stop watching the movie and start _this_.

Talking of taking things to the next level, Una noticed his weakening resolve and ruthlessly exploited it. She grinned and clambered on top of her Captain, pushing him back until he lay flat on the bed. The result was his XO perched on his legs, hovering around his groin and smiling down at him with a smirk firmly in place. She suddenly ground herself against his swelling length, causing him to buck up unwillingly and let out a guttural moan into the room, his hands came to land on her hips automatically and he took a few quick breaths to compose himself. He opened his eyes and noticed Una's triumphant grin and the way she was massaging the inside of his legs.

She leaned back and swiftly took her top off, leaving her in just her bra. "You don't seem so exhausted now." She teased and rubbed herself against him again, only speeding up his body's reaction to her and sending him further over the edge of his self-control.

He had to admit it was a lost cause now and Una was right about one thing; she had woken him up well and truly. His eyes were still tracking her naked chest and he swallowed until his mind started to work again. "You're not playing fair." He complained.

Number One laughed happily. "Never." She replied with a twinkle in her eye and resumed her trail of kisses up his neck and chest.

Chris closed his eyes and bared his neck to her, revelling in the attention she was paying to his sensitive areas and how incredibly _good_ the little nips and kisses felt. He started to relax into the moment and let all of his tension flow away.

"You know, there was one good thing that came out of tonight…" Una purred.

Her words snapped him out of his doze and he glanced up at her, a curious expression in place. "Oh?"

"Seeing you earlier…" Surprisingly she reached out and took hold of both his wrists. "…All tied up in that chair…" She manoeuvred his wrists above his head and pressed them gently to the mattress, stretching out his torso. "…I have to admit, it was hot."

Her eyes were gleaming, the familiar desire and lust sparking in her pupils. For his part, Pike's mind was spinning and he felt like he had missed something vital. He glanced upwards to where Una had his wrists pinned, down to her face and finally deciphered what she had just said.

His cheeks blushed as he remembered the look she had given him when he had been restrained. _Well_… he never knew Una was into kinks, and honestly he hadn't realised he was either, but there was something about the way she looked at him when he was laid out like this that sent a rush of blood straight to his groin.

"You find this hot?" He eventually managed to form words, his voice cracking when Una leant down to his face and he felt her breasts against his chest.

She grinned and nipped at his chest and neck. "Don't you?"

He gulped, he was pretty sure she could _feel_ how hot he found this, still he could see she was making sure he was comfortable with this so he nodded eagerly.

"I didn't know you-"

Pike's words were cut off when Una suddenly removed a hand from his pinned wrists and placed it firmly over his mouth, muffling the rest of the question to incoherent sounds. She grinned as he lightly frowned, confused at the change in direction.

"I liked the gag too…" She teased, flexing her fingers over his mouth and pressing into him. Chris couldn't help it, he groaned against his will which earned a victorious smile from Una.

Suddenly her hand disappeared and her lips descended on his, hot and fast. Chris opened his mouth fully and leaned up as far as he could manage with her weight on his chest; their tongues danced together and the assault sped up until they were both panting madly. Pike leant up to ravish her neck, distracting her from the task at hand and effectively turning the tables of power. When he nipped at her pulse point she moaned loudly and almost lost her balance, Chris grinned against her neck triumphantly and used the change in motion to flip the tables.

He extracted his restrained hands from her grip and rolled them until he was one on top, straddling her waist and taking her hands in his grip. Chris smirked at her shocked expression, smug that he had secretly taken her by surprise knowing it was such a rarity.

Chris placed her hands above her head slowly and revelled in her incredulous expression. Una did have a point, this _was_ hot.

She laughed suddenly and shook her head in disbelief. "I wasn't finish-"

Chris planted one of his hands over her mouth and smiled when her nostrils flared, and her eyes widened, like she couldn't believe he'd just had the balls to interrupt her.

"My turn." He whispered before descending on her with reckless abandon.

_Finis_


End file.
